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Felon
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General Politics Three: But what is left/right?
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Ziggy Stardust
Absolutely Sane
Gentlemen's vegetables.
OMG, the House has passed the most significant legislation of the year!!
Like school children lining up to receive their class pictures, members of the so-far historically unproductive House of Representatives on Thursday had three alphabetical lines at a desk just off the House floor from which to choose: A-Gal, Gar-Mora and More-Z.
The occasion? Picking up new member lapel pins, small mementos serving not only as literal badges for one of the most exclusive clubs in the world but also as a secondary security device, helping distinguish members from the staffers, lobbyists and journalists that rub shoulders in the U.S. Capitol.
But this time was different: Instead of picking them up at the start of the 118th Congress last year, they were picking them up this week, a year later. And their new color sparked some partisan snark. “Today we’re getting a new pin, half way through the term because the @HouseGOP didn’t like the color. Big congrats to them on their first tangible accomplishment of the 118th,” posted Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) on social media, posting a picture of the old, blue 118th Congress pin next to one of the new, green 118th pins.
For a House that in its first year was half of the least productive Congress since the Herbert Hoover administration, is in the middle of a clash between a new House speaker and the hardline right wing of his party and faces the prospect of a partial government shutdown in a week, it struck some Democrats as illustrative of the House GOP majority’s mismatched priorities. “I’m awfully proud of these guys for getting something done,” Casten told HuffPost, adding: “When we have a war in Ukraine that we can’t get funding to, a crisis in Israel and Gaza and a government shutdown eight days away and we’re prioritizing the color of fashion choices, that speaks for itself.”
With each new Congress, every lawmaker gets a pin to wear that has a new pattern and color and also includes the lawmaker’s rank in House seniority on the back of it. With it, the member can bypass security, get on the House floor and generally avoid wearing the one thing everyone else who works or visits the Capitol wears: an ID badge. Spouses and family members also get similar but not identical pins to identify them. “It’s a thing. It’s a memento for members and spouses,” Casten said. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), who picked up his pin Thursday, said he’s kept all his old ones from his previous 12 terms. “I don’t think you go and sell these. Maybe it’s something you give your grandson,” he said. But why green? And why now? No one seemed to know or want to say.
In December, the House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland, who is in charge of chamber security, sent members a letter saying they needed to pick up their new pin in January. “The Sergeant at Arms (SAA) is committed to the safety and security of Members, Congressional staff and visitors throughout the complex. To this end, the SAA will distribute a newly designed Member Lapel Pin to be worn during the second session of the 118th Congress,” the letter said. “To assist the U.S. Capitol Police with identification, Members are advised to wear this new pin,” the letter said. The office declined any further comment.
An inquiry with the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Sergeant at Arms office and picks the pin design, was unanswered. One theory is the pin color clashed with congressional fashion choices. Casten said he’d heard it was the color. “There’s been this low-level grumbling [that] people didn’t like the color,” he said. It’s unclear if that’s the case, but notably, a 2023 picture shows what looks like much more of a Nickelodeon slime green color on a 118th pin, in contrast to what is probably closer to a British racing green on the ones distributed this week. Sessions said he thought it was related to security. “It might be for the guys who protect us. It doesn’t have to be for us. It has to be for their utilization, their identification, for their professionalism that is required,” he said. Unable to resist getting one more dig in, Casten had another theory.
“I don’t know — maybe we do it every time we get a new speaker,” he said, an allusion to the historic ouster in October of former Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair and new Speaker Mike Johnson’s problems.
The House’s Newest Accomplishment: Cool New Lapel Pins For Members
A change in color in the pins members use to identify themselves inspires snark — and something of a mystery.Like school children lining up to receive their class pictures, members of the so-far historically unproductive House of Representatives on Thursday had three alphabetical lines at a desk just off the House floor from which to choose: A-Gal, Gar-Mora and More-Z.
The occasion? Picking up new member lapel pins, small mementos serving not only as literal badges for one of the most exclusive clubs in the world but also as a secondary security device, helping distinguish members from the staffers, lobbyists and journalists that rub shoulders in the U.S. Capitol.
But this time was different: Instead of picking them up at the start of the 118th Congress last year, they were picking them up this week, a year later. And their new color sparked some partisan snark. “Today we’re getting a new pin, half way through the term because the @HouseGOP didn’t like the color. Big congrats to them on their first tangible accomplishment of the 118th,” posted Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) on social media, posting a picture of the old, blue 118th Congress pin next to one of the new, green 118th pins.
For a House that in its first year was half of the least productive Congress since the Herbert Hoover administration, is in the middle of a clash between a new House speaker and the hardline right wing of his party and faces the prospect of a partial government shutdown in a week, it struck some Democrats as illustrative of the House GOP majority’s mismatched priorities. “I’m awfully proud of these guys for getting something done,” Casten told HuffPost, adding: “When we have a war in Ukraine that we can’t get funding to, a crisis in Israel and Gaza and a government shutdown eight days away and we’re prioritizing the color of fashion choices, that speaks for itself.”
With each new Congress, every lawmaker gets a pin to wear that has a new pattern and color and also includes the lawmaker’s rank in House seniority on the back of it. With it, the member can bypass security, get on the House floor and generally avoid wearing the one thing everyone else who works or visits the Capitol wears: an ID badge. Spouses and family members also get similar but not identical pins to identify them. “It’s a thing. It’s a memento for members and spouses,” Casten said. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), who picked up his pin Thursday, said he’s kept all his old ones from his previous 12 terms. “I don’t think you go and sell these. Maybe it’s something you give your grandson,” he said. But why green? And why now? No one seemed to know or want to say.
In December, the House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland, who is in charge of chamber security, sent members a letter saying they needed to pick up their new pin in January. “The Sergeant at Arms (SAA) is committed to the safety and security of Members, Congressional staff and visitors throughout the complex. To this end, the SAA will distribute a newly designed Member Lapel Pin to be worn during the second session of the 118th Congress,” the letter said. “To assist the U.S. Capitol Police with identification, Members are advised to wear this new pin,” the letter said. The office declined any further comment.
An inquiry with the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Sergeant at Arms office and picks the pin design, was unanswered. One theory is the pin color clashed with congressional fashion choices. Casten said he’d heard it was the color. “There’s been this low-level grumbling [that] people didn’t like the color,” he said. It’s unclear if that’s the case, but notably, a 2023 picture shows what looks like much more of a Nickelodeon slime green color on a 118th pin, in contrast to what is probably closer to a British racing green on the ones distributed this week. Sessions said he thought it was related to security. “It might be for the guys who protect us. It doesn’t have to be for us. It has to be for their utilization, their identification, for their professionalism that is required,” he said. Unable to resist getting one more dig in, Casten had another theory.
“I don’t know — maybe we do it every time we get a new speaker,” he said, an allusion to the historic ouster in October of former Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair and new Speaker Mike Johnson’s problems.
amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
Why lapels? Why put seniority on the back? Let’s do it like Brezhnev, give medals for everyone. That way when you see Senator Claghorn (Dixie) on the floor you know he’s been in office since reconstruction ended.
I say, that’s a joke, son.
I say, that’s a joke, son.
You got me Bird... I thought that they had passed a CR to prevent a government shutdown... silly me.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Had they tried, they would be currently voting on a new speaker rather than on vanity.You got me Bird... I thought that they had passed a CR to prevent a government shutdown... silly me.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
North Korea: Rare footage shows teens sentenced to hard labour over K-drama
Rare footage obtained by BBC Korean shows North Korea publicly sentencing two teenage boys to 12 years of hard labour for watching K-dramas.The footage, which appears to have been filmed in 2022, shows two 16-year-old boys handcuffed in front of hundreds of students at an outdoor stadium.
It also shows uniformed officers reprimanding the boys for not "deeply reflecting on their mistakes".
South Korean entertainment, including TV, is banned in the North.
Despite that, some are prepared to risk severe punishment to access K-dramas, which have a huge global audience.
Footage such as this is rare, because North Korea forbids photos, videos and other evidence of life in the country from being leaked to the outside world.
This video was provided to the BBC by the South and North Development (Sand), a research institute that works with defectors from the North.
It suggests authorities are coming down harder on such incidents. The clip has reportedly been distributed in North Korea for ideology education and to warn citizens not to watch "decadent recordings".
The video includes a narrator who is repeating state propaganda. "The rotten puppet regime's culture has spread even to teenagers," says the voice, in an apparent reference to South Korea. "They are just 16 years old, but they ruined their own future," it adds.
The boys were also named by officers and had their addresses revealed.
In the past, minors who broke the law in this way would be sent to youth labour camps rather than put behind bars, and the punishment was usually less than five years.
- North Koreans tell of neighbours starving to death
- A family's escape from North Korea through a minefield and stormy seas
A defector previously told the BBC that he was forced to watch a 22-year-old man shot to death. He said the man was accused of listening to South Korean music and had shared films from the South with his friend.
Sand CEO Choi Kyong-hui said Pyongyang sees the spread of K-dramas and K-pop as a danger to its ideology.
"Admiration for South Korean society can soon lead to a weakening of the system... This goes against the monolithic ideology that makes North Koreans revere the Kim family," she said.
North Koreans started getting a taste of South Korean entertainment in the 2000s, during the years of the South's "sunshine policy" which saw it offering unconditional economic and humanitarian aid to the North.
Seoul ended the policy in 2010, saying it found the aid did not reach the ordinary North Koreans it was intended for, and that it had not resulted in any "positive changes" to Pyongyang's behaviour.
But South Korean entertainment continued to reach North Korea through China.
"If you get caught watching an American drama, you can get away with a bribe, but if you watch a Korean drama, you get shot," a North Korean defector told BBC Korean on Thursday.
"For North Korean people, Korean dramas are a 'drug' that helps them forget their difficult reality," the defector said.
"In North Korea, we learn that South Korea lives much worse than us, but when you watch South Korean dramas, it's a completely different world. It seems like the North Korean authorities are wary of that," said another North Korean defector in her 20s.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68015652
Crezth
i knew you were a real man of the left
Texas VS the Federal Government. Should Biden take control of the Texas National Guard? Stay tuned…
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
So Abbott did everything in his power to make sure that the border patrol couldn't do it's job and now blames Biden and the border patrol for not doing their jobs.
Crezth
i knew you were a real man of the left
I don’t think it helps to buy into his BS narrative that that’s what this is really about. He just wants the wall to stay up.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
He's probably doing this to further his political career and Conservative™ credentials.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
There was a time when this was satire.......Pepperidge Farm remembers
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Meanwhile, many major news networks have yet to pick this up.
Either they are slow, or Abbott being stupid isn't considered "Newsworthy"
I think the recent Supreme Court ruling means the feds can cut down the razor wire whenever they deem it neccessary, but Texas is just letting them and putting up even more razor wire?
Attorney General Ken Paxton Responds to SCOTUS Ruling on Concertina Wire Case
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released the following statement after the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) issued an interlocutory order permitting the Biden Administration to resume destroying concertina wire barriers placed by Texas on its side of the Rio Grande riverbank.
www.texasattorneygeneral.gov
- In October 2023, Attorney General Paxton sued the Biden Administration for destroying concertina wire fencing that Texas had deployed to reduce the record-breaking influx of illegal immigration.
- Texas quickly secured an emergency restraining order from a federal judge that ordered federal agents to cease doing so.
- Although the federal judge found the Administration’s actions likely unlawful, she later declined to grant the State’s request for a temporary injunction pending trial.
- Attorney General Paxton successfully appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and quickly obtained an administrative stay and, subsequently, an injunction pending appeal to prevent the federal government from continuing its destruction of Texas property while the court considered the matter further.
- The Fifth Circuit’s order did not prohibit the removal of barriers if and when required to render emergency medical aid.
- Nonetheless, the Biden Administration asked SCOTUS to vacate the injunction in an emergency appeal.
- Today, over the dissent of four Justices, the Supreme Court vacated the injunction pending appeal.
- Although the Supreme Court has permitted the continued destruction of Texas’s border security measures, this appeal remains ongoing, and the Office of the Attorney General will argue the case in front of the Fifth Circuit on February 7.
Only Jon Stewart returning to the Daily Show can make sense of that legal mumbo jumbo!
GASP 2024 WUT?!!!!
Mondays only starting February 12th.
Mondays only starting February 12th.
Ohhhhh, Texas (The Governor) has officially declared an invasion. >_>
The USA Constitution is now in play.
...
Under President Biden’s lawless border policies, more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed our southern border in just 3 years.
That is more than the population of 33 different States in this country.
This illegal refusal to protect the States has inflicted unprecedented harm on the People all across the United States.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border.
That is why the Framers included bothArticle IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion,” and Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.” Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387, 419 (2012) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense.
For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself.
That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary.
The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.
...
Don’t cover Imran Khan’s PTI: Pakistan’s media told to censor popular ex-PM
Journalist Amir Mehmood* was getting ready for work when his phone buzzed with a WhatsApp message.
As a member of the top management at a private news channel in Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, Mehmood was used to getting non-stop calls and messages, even at odd hours.
But the name of the sender of that message on Tuesday morning caught his attention and he immediately picked up his phone. It was an official who belonged to the country’s powerful military, which has directly ruled over Pakistan for more than three decades of its 75-year existence as a constitutional republic and has controlled most levers of power, from behind the scenes, even when civilian governments have been in office.
“Basically, the person pointed out some of our election coverage and said we must not use the flags of PTI or mention their affiliation with candidates backed by the party. It instructed us to clearly identify the candidates only as ‘independent’ and not show which party they were related to,” Mehmood told Al Jazeera.
Mehmood is among multiple journalists working in newsrooms of different TV news channels and web outlets, who have told Al Jazeera of instructions they have received effectively imposing near-blanket censorship on coverage of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party ahead of the nation’s February 8 elections.
Pakistan ex-PM’s party loses election symbol. Will it hurt its prospects?
Electoral symbols play an important role in a democratic process. As Pakistan gears up for general elections due next month, posters with party symbols can be seen plastered on utility poles and roadside walls across cities and towns.
Political parties have kicked off campaigning, plastering walls with propaganda posters but the symbol of what many believe is the country’s most popular party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), seems to be missing, thanks to an unprecedented crackdown on the PTI and its jailed leader, former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan’s party has been barred from using the party symbol in the elections scheduled for February 8.
PTI members and supporters say the blocking of its symbol, a cricket bat, is a ploy by the military-backed caretaker government to ensure the party’s defeat.
The ECP on December 22 omitted PTI’s bat symbol on the technical grounds that the party had not held intra-party elections – required under law. This rendered the party ineligible for having a symbol for the 2024 elections.
An intra-party election conducted by the PTI on June 8, 2022 was not recognised by the ECP on the grounds that it was not “just and fair”. The ECP also passed similar orders against 13 marginal political parties.
Journalist Amir Mehmood* was getting ready for work when his phone buzzed with a WhatsApp message.
As a member of the top management at a private news channel in Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, Mehmood was used to getting non-stop calls and messages, even at odd hours.
But the name of the sender of that message on Tuesday morning caught his attention and he immediately picked up his phone. It was an official who belonged to the country’s powerful military, which has directly ruled over Pakistan for more than three decades of its 75-year existence as a constitutional republic and has controlled most levers of power, from behind the scenes, even when civilian governments have been in office.
“Basically, the person pointed out some of our election coverage and said we must not use the flags of PTI or mention their affiliation with candidates backed by the party. It instructed us to clearly identify the candidates only as ‘independent’ and not show which party they were related to,” Mehmood told Al Jazeera.
Mehmood is among multiple journalists working in newsrooms of different TV news channels and web outlets, who have told Al Jazeera of instructions they have received effectively imposing near-blanket censorship on coverage of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party ahead of the nation’s February 8 elections.
Pakistan ex-PM’s party loses election symbol. Will it hurt its prospects?
Electoral symbols play an important role in a democratic process. As Pakistan gears up for general elections due next month, posters with party symbols can be seen plastered on utility poles and roadside walls across cities and towns.
Political parties have kicked off campaigning, plastering walls with propaganda posters but the symbol of what many believe is the country’s most popular party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), seems to be missing, thanks to an unprecedented crackdown on the PTI and its jailed leader, former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan’s party has been barred from using the party symbol in the elections scheduled for February 8.
PTI members and supporters say the blocking of its symbol, a cricket bat, is a ploy by the military-backed caretaker government to ensure the party’s defeat.
The ECP on December 22 omitted PTI’s bat symbol on the technical grounds that the party had not held intra-party elections – required under law. This rendered the party ineligible for having a symbol for the 2024 elections.
An intra-party election conducted by the PTI on June 8, 2022 was not recognised by the ECP on the grounds that it was not “just and fair”. The ECP also passed similar orders against 13 marginal political parties.
Top French court rejects large parts of controversial immigration bill
More than a third of articles in a controversial immigration bill must be scrapped, France’s Constitutional Council has said.
The council, a body that validates the constitutionality of laws, rejected measures in the bill on Thursday that call for the toughening of access to social benefits, family reunification, and the introduction of immigration quotas set by parliament.
It upheld much of the bill initially presented by President Emmanuel Macron’s government but criticised the contentious additions made under pressure from the political right and far right.
Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right National Rally party, slammed the ruling, which he described as a “coup by the judges, with the backing of the president”.
Previous criticism from Philippe Marliere, a professor in French and European Politics at University College London:
Indeed, “national preference” – the French first doctrine name-checked by Le Pen and long espoused by the French far-right – had “up until now [been] rejected by the rest of the political spectrum”, but, by virtue of this legislation, has today made it into the political mainstream.
“[National preference] has been [promoted] by the far-right in France for 50 years and with this bill it has got what it has always wanted,” said Marliere of the principle which, say its detractors, would codify a two-tier system in France by prioritising French citizens over legal migrants.
“But without even winning a general election and [Marine] Le Pen being elected president.”
More than a third of articles in a controversial immigration bill must be scrapped, France’s Constitutional Council has said.
The council, a body that validates the constitutionality of laws, rejected measures in the bill on Thursday that call for the toughening of access to social benefits, family reunification, and the introduction of immigration quotas set by parliament.
It upheld much of the bill initially presented by President Emmanuel Macron’s government but criticised the contentious additions made under pressure from the political right and far right.
Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right National Rally party, slammed the ruling, which he described as a “coup by the judges, with the backing of the president”.
Previous criticism from Philippe Marliere, a professor in French and European Politics at University College London:
Indeed, “national preference” – the French first doctrine name-checked by Le Pen and long espoused by the French far-right – had “up until now [been] rejected by the rest of the political spectrum”, but, by virtue of this legislation, has today made it into the political mainstream.
“[National preference] has been [promoted] by the far-right in France for 50 years and with this bill it has got what it has always wanted,” said Marliere of the principle which, say its detractors, would codify a two-tier system in France by prioritising French citizens over legal migrants.
“But without even winning a general election and [Marine] Le Pen being elected president.”
- Status
