Democratic Underground: Forums for U.S. Liberals and Democrats

House GOP's Budget Hawks Now Want A $4 Trillion Debt Limit Hike

Jan 16, 2025, 11:41 AM EST The House Freedom Caucus, a group of hard-right conservative and libertarian Republicans, wants a $4 trillion hike in the nation’s debt limit as part of the GOP’s big but still-developing tax and spending cut plans. A hike in the debt limit would allow the government to continue borrowing to repay past debts and keep it from defaulting on the current $36 trillion-plus in outstanding debt. A default by the U.S. on its debt would trigger catastrophic economic conseque ...

BumRushDaShow

Rudy Giuliani avoids trial by settling with Georgia election workers he defamed

Updated 2:27 PM EST, Thu January 16, 2025 CNN -- Rudy Giuliani has reached a settlement with two Georgia election workers that he defamed on their pursuit to collect on a $150 million debt, according to a court filing on Thursday. Giuliani was about to face trial and potentially lose the Florida condo in which he says he lives and several New York Yankees World Series rings. He had been in litigation with the women, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, over whether his $3.5 million Florida condo is ...

BumRushDaShow

Trump's inauguration will be coldest in decades

January 16, 2025, 10:40 AM President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday is forecast to be the coldest in 40 years. An arctic front will pass by Washington, D.C., on Sunday night and winds will pick up out of the northwest, ushering in arctic air. Monday's temperature will be at its highest -- about 25 degrees -- when the clock strikes Inauguration Day at midnight. Throughout the course of the day, the temperature will slowly fall. When Trump is sworn in at noon, the temperature will ...

BumRushDaShow

Trump's billionaire Treasury chief nominee says minimum wage should stay at $7.25 per hour

January 16, 2025 1:42PM ET Billionaire businessman Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Treasury Department, argued that the federal minimum wage should remain at $7.25 an hour. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) asked Bessent about raising the federal minimum wage. "Right now in America, we have over 22 million workers who are making less than $15 an hour, and nearly 40 million people in ...

Polybius

Vivek Ramaswamy emerges as a surprise prospect for Vance's old Senate seat

CLEVELAND — Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur positioned to help oversee President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to cut government spending, is in discussions about filling Vice President-elect JD Vance’s Senate seat in Ohio, two people briefed on the process told NBC News. The development is a reversal for Ramaswamy, who in November said his work alongside billionaire Elon Musk at Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency would remove him from consideration for the Senate job. But Ohi ...

BumRushDaShow

Trump team asks three US senior career diplomats to resign, sources say

(Reuters) Aides to President-elect Donald Trump have asked three senior career diplomats who oversee the U.S. State Department's workforce and internal coordination to step down from their roles, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said, in a possible signal of deeper changes ahead for the diplomatic corps. The team overseeing the State Department's transition to the new administration, the Agency Review Team, has requested that Dereck Hogan, Marcia Bernicat and Alaina Teplitz leave their posts, the sources said.

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

President Biden sounds alarm about threats to U.S. in final address to the nation

sarchasm

Democrats and the Ruthless Aggression Era

(The Bulwark) Democrats in Washington are, as a matter of governing, irrelevant for the next year. They cannot pass or propose legislation. They cannot hold hearings. They are in no position to stop the Trump administration from doing whatever it wants. The job of the Democratic party, then is to get into position to get into position. That job comes in two parts. First: Do not help Republicans. Not in any way. On any issue. Republicans can’t pass a budget, or raise the debt ceiling? Tough luck. Do not provide them any bailout votes on any issue. Period, the end. Second: Make Donald Trump own every bad outcome that happens, anywhere in the world while paying special attention to areas where Republicans are particularly vulnerable.

demmiblue

House Dems tell Garland to do whatever it takes to release final report on Trump's classified docs

(Politico) House Judiciary Committee Democrats are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland, in his final days in office, to release special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling and concealment of classified documents — even if it means dropping criminal charges against his alleged accomplices. “It is essential that the American people and Congress understand how Mr. Trump mishandled our nation’s most sensitive classified information, especially because he will be sworn in as Commander-in-Chief and take leadership of our national security apparatus in just five days,” the Committee Democrats, led by write ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), wrote in a letter obtained by Politico.

KS Toronado

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Biden shortens sentences for nearly 2,500 people, setting a record

4 min ago - January 17, 2025 5:00 AM ET President Biden announced on Friday that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug crimes who are serving far longer sentences than they would receive today. "With this action, I ha ... (NPR)

Central Park Five seek to keep ACLU, free speech advocates from weighing in on defamation lawsuit against Trump

16 min ago - Jan 16th, 2025, 5:19 pm The Central Park Five urged a federal judge in Pennsylvania not to allow several nonparty media organizations and trade associations — as well as the ACLU — to weigh in on their defamation lawsuit against President- ... (Law & Crime)

Three Navalny lawyers sentenced to years in Russian penal colony for extremist activity

44 min ago - Three lawyers for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny were found guilty by a Russian court on Friday of belonging to an extremist group and sentenced to years in a penal colony. Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev were arrested in Oc ... (Reuters)

Durbin seeks information from Patel personnel files at national security agencies

46 min ago - 01/16/25 4:05 PM ET Updated at 4:56 p.m. EST Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked a suite of agencies that previously employed Kash Patel to turn over information on possible misconduct of President-el ... (The Hill)

Republican states can move ahead with abortion pill lawsuit in Texas

1 hr ago - January 16, 2025 4:43 PM EST Updated 11 hours ago Jan 16 (Reuters) - The Republican-led states of Idaho, Missouri and Kansas can proceed with a lawsuit seeking to restrict the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone in the United States, a fed ... (Reuters)

Merrick Garland rebukes 'unfounded attacks' on Justice Department officials in farewell speech

1 hr ago - Jan. 16, 2025, 4:24 PM EST In a farewell speech to Justice Department staffers, outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appeared to rebuke attacks from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies who have "wrongly criticized" the depart ... (NBC News)

Biden administration looks for ways to keep TikTok available in the U.S.

2 hrs ago - President Joe Biden’s administration is considering ways to keep TikTok available in the United States if a ban that’s scheduled to go into effect Sunday proceeds, according to three people familiar with the discussions. “Americans sho ... (NBC News)

CNN Reportedly Considering Exiling Jim Acosta's Show To Midnight 'To Throw a Bone To Trump'

4 hrs ago - Former CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy reported in his Status newsletter on Thursday that Acosta “received a peculiar telephone call from CNN chief Mark Thompson” the night before. “Thompson, I’m told, delivered the veteran ... (Mediaite)

CNN Poll: Trump will enter the White House with more positive sentiment than his last term

7 hrs ago - Donald Trump continues to see some of the most positive ratings of his political career, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, which finds the president-elect poised to enter his second term with far more positive sentiment behind him than w ... (CNN)

Dozens of flights diverted, delayed after FAA warned of SpaceX rocket debris

7 hrs ago - By Leslie Josephs,CNBC • Published 6 mins ago Dozens of flights diverted or were delayed after SpaceX's Starship rocket broke up. The FAA warned pilots about a "dangerous area for falling debris of rocket Starship." View of Space X's St ... (nbc)

More Americans file for unemployment benefits, but layoffs remain historically low

8 hrs ago - January 16, 2025, 8:40 AM The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week, but layoffs remain historically low and the job market broadly healthy. Applications for jobless benefits rose by 14,000 for the week ending January ... (ABC News/AP)

House Passes Bill to Deport Immigrants Convicted of Violence Against Women

8 hrs ago - Scores of Democrats joined Republicans in approving the measure, even though existing law already allows immigrants with contested legal status who are convicted of sex crimes to be deported. The House passed a bill on Thursday to mandate deportation ... (New York Times)

Supreme Court may announce opinions Friday as decision on TikTok ban looms

9 hrs ago - Updated on: January 16, 2025 / 6:06 PM EST Washington — The Supreme Court said Thursday that it may announce opinions on Friday morning, a last-minute addition to the schedule that comes just two days before a law that would ban TikTok is set to ... (CBS News)

Eric Adams Heads to Mar-a-Lago to Meet With Trump

9 hrs ago - “Mayor Adams has made quite clear his willingness to work with President-elect Trump and his incoming administration on behalf of New Yorkers — and that partnership with the federal government is critical to New York City’s success, ... (NYT)

Toyota's commercial truck company will pay $1.6 billion for faking emissions tests

10 hrs ago - January 16, 2025 1:57 PM ET Hino Motors, a subsidiary of Toyota that manufactures commercial trucks, has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of a multi-year criminal conspiracy to fraudulently evade state and federal emissions standards. It's ... (NPR)

American Express to pay $230 million to settle DOJ fraud probe, deceptive marketing claim

10 hrs ago - Jan. 16, 2025, 2:40 PM EST / Source: CNBC American Express will pay a total of about $230 million to resolve federal wire fraud investigations, and to settle civil allegations of deceptive marketing, the company said Thursday. The tally includes more ... (NBC News/CNBC)

SpaceX catches Mega Booster but Starship-7 lost in flight

10 hrs ago - SpaceX successfully recovered its Super Heavy booster using its advanced launch tower "chopstick" arms, marking a significant step forward in reusable rocketry. However, the seventh test flight of Starship ended with the loss of the upper stage in or ... (Space Daily)

FCC rejects complaints over ABC presidential debate, Harris TV appearances

11 hrs ago - January 16, 2025 1:00 PM EST Updated 5 hours ago WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday rejected complaints about how ABC News moderated the pre-election TV debate between U.S. President Joe Biden and Republi ... (Reuters)

Trump's inauguration will be coldest in decades

11 hrs ago - January 16, 2025, 10:40 AM President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday is forecast to be the coldest in 40 years. An arctic front will pass by Washington, D.C., on Sunday night and winds will pick up out of the northwest, ushering in arctic ... (ABC News)

Albania approves luxury resort project linked to Jared Kushner's company

11 hrs ago - January 16, 20257:22 AM CST Updated 9 hours ago TIRANA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Albania's government has granted strategic investor status to a company linked to Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner to build a luxury resort on an uninhabited Mediterra ... (reuters)