suffragette
suffragette's JournalFrom start to end, this article places blame on Trump and praises Pelosi. Nice to see accurate news.
Trump backs down on shutdown, agrees to fund government for 3 weeks
http://amp.kiro7.com/news/politics/trump-backs-down-on-shutdown-agrees-to-fund-government-for-3-weeks/909927948
Hours after flight delays attributed to a 35 day partial government shutdown began to slow airline travel at major airports on the East Coast, President Donald Trump agreed to sign off on a bill to fund and re-open the government through February 15, ensuring that 800,000 federal workers would get back pay after missing a pair of paychecks, and giving lawmakers extra time to negotiate a spending package on border security.
“I am very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government,” the President said in the White Hous Rose Garden.
While the President sought to put the best light on the developments, it was a major shift for Mr. Trump, who had repeatedly refused to open the government, and allow for negotiations on border security to go forward – as his decision on Friday basically accepted what Democrats had called for since before Christmas.
The widening impact of the shutdown, from agencies to contractors.
The Houston Chronicle has reported that now unpaid workers at the Johnson Space Center are being asked to take on custodial duties, even as they are not being paid for their regular jobs.
https://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/space/article/Johnson-Space-Center-workers-being-asked-to-clean-13559079.php
A NASA manager tweeted Thursday a photo of a sign asking for volunteers to clean up the bathrooms once a week until the shutdown ends. Funding for the custodial contract was scheduled to lapse after Friday, but a labor representative said reduced hours were being negotiated with the space agency.
"This is our reality at the Johnson Space Center," the manager tweeted. "We now have no custodial services while we work without pay to keep the International Space Station operating."
This means that both the workers at NASA and the custodial workers and their company are being negatively impacted by the shutdown.
It’s notable that those custodial workers have provided even more support than keeping common spaces clean in the past and that theirs is but one of that many ripple effects taking place now.
From 2017:
https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/pages.ashx/757/Custodial%20team%20is%20in%20Orions%20corner%20during%20prototype%20testing
Custodial team is in Orion’s corner during prototype testing
With no room at the on-site clinic for this type of testing, Johnson sought out old space shuttle crew dressing rooms in Building 5, where crews used to dress for suited simulations. With the support of Building 5 Facility Manager Jerry Swain, Johnson was able to move forward with the hardware assessment.
The experiment provided a functionality evaluation of the Urine Collection Device, which must meet vigorous standards since Orion crews will remain in their spacesuits—and rely on the device—for a maximum duration of six days.
Flight Ops set aside the testing area and made the rooms available for the out-of-the-ordinary request. Because the experiment would require using the bathroom a little outside of its normal use profile, investigators needed help from the custodial staff to support the test and make sure the workplace was kept clean and sanitary. A Test Readiness Review was conducted for safety and acceptability of the rooms, where it was recognized that due to the nature of the testing, custodial support would be a heavily involved with the task.
Peace vs hate. The context of Nathan Phillips and the Indigenous Peoples March.
Something I haven’t seen addressed enough in discussions of what took place in DC between Nathan Phillips, the Covington students and the Black Israelites is the context of Phillips having come from the Indigenous Peoples March and what that March was about.
Nathan Phillips had spent the day at a March promoting rights and justice.
The Covington students were coming from a place of taunting, both from their practices at sporting events and from taking part in the annual rally to control women’s choice and bodies.
The Black Israelites’ purpose was apparently to be provocative and provoke passers-by.
That context of Phillips taking part in the first Indigenous Peoples March is important. He was taking part in a March of international solidarity, whose aim was to educate and acknowledge the many injustices inflicted on indigenous people around the globe and to make a peaceful and united stand for their rights. This is community in the most positive way, a realization that the strongest counter to hatred and policies that are enacted both locally and across borders and countries must be done by a movement that does the same.
I’ve written about some of this on DU in the past, about the way the Kumeyaay were split from each other by the border with Mexico and the new strength of First Nations coming together across the Canadian/US border to fight against projects on both sides of the border which would impact communities both there and here. This movement is growing and that is positive at its core.
Coming from that place, in mind and spirit, Nathan Phillips saw the conflict developing between the two groups and sought to calm the situation. It looks like he was able to for a short time. That he was then mocked and scorned and is now being attacked for attempting to bring peace is a sad testament to where we are in the 21st Century.
What is up with seven Democrats from Problem Caucus meeting with Trump today?
https://www.greensboro.com/ap/us_world/the-latest-democrats-visit-white-house-to-talk-to-trump/article_0dc262f5-b0dd-515e-bc48-77c989cd3a69.html
It's the first group of rank-and-file Democrats to meet with Trump during the shutdown, which stretched into its 26th day Wednesday. The White House has been trying to peel lawmakers away from Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH'-see), but invitations to Democrats earlier this week were declined.
Those arriving Wednesday for the midday meeting in the Situation Room included five freshmen, several of whom did not back Pelosi as speaker. They represent areas where Trump remains popular. They're from a bipartisan group called the Problem Solvers Caucus.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/damage-inflicted-shutdown-shaves-off-projected-us-economic-134906463--abc-news-topstories.html
Seven Democrats are attending a bipartisan meeting at the White House
Democratic members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus -- Reps. Josh Gottheimer, Thomas Suozzi, Vincente Gonzalez, Anthony Brindisi, Dean Phillips, Max Rose, and Abigail Spanberger -- met at the White House to sit down with Trump in the Situation Room about the shutdown. Entering the meeting, the members said they planned to tell the president that the conversation about "some of our country's toughest problems" can "only begin in earnest once the government is reopened."
"We accepted the White House’s invitation to meet today to convey that message," a group statement read.
Trump fundraising before speech. Calls it "Official Secure the Border Fund" but goes to his campaign
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/424356-trump-fundraising-on-national-address-on-borderPresident Trump is fundraising off his national prime-time address Tuesday focused on the border amid the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Trump in an email Tuesday afternoon asked supporters to donate to his "Official Secure the Border Fund" through the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.
"We need to raise $500,000 in ONE DAY. I want to know who stood with me when it mattered most so I’ve asked my team to send me a list of EVERY AMERICAN PATRIOT who donates to the Official Secure the Border Fund," read the email written in Trump's name.
It’s always about him making more money for himself, no matter what he labels it.
"I have not discussed the border wall with President Trump, and do not support him on the issue."
Can’t say it any clearer than Jimmy Carter just did.
https://twitter.com/CarterCenter/status/1082360095219073026
That means all the living presidents have denied Trump’s claim.
Story behind AOC Boston U video describes her as a "leading student ambassador."
BU interviewed the creators of the now famous dance video and they both noted how Ocasio-Cortez was a positive student ambassador for the Howard Thurman Center at BU.
The posting of this video in an attempt to tear down Ocasio-Cortez has truly turned out to be one of the biggest backfires ever. The more information that comes out about it, the more positive light is shown on her.
http://www.bu.edu/today/2019/ocasio-cortez-dancing-video/
“We thought it was fun and a great way to showcase your community,” Baker says. “If we could jump on the ball, we thought we could do a Boston University mashup. We were student ambassadors at the Howard Thurman Center with Alexandria and others. We decided to make our own version. Julian and I did this from top to bottom, shooting, editing, casting.”
He says Cortez was a friend and “sort of the face of the Thurman Center,” because of her ability to rally people to want to be a part of it.
~~~
Like Baker, Fernandez, then the assistant director of the Howard Thurman Center, now the assistant dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion at Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, recalls Ocasio-Cortez as being a leading student ambassador for the Center. He had seen a video of the song “Lisztomania” by Phoenix set to scenes of dances from Brat Pack movies, and a group in Brooklyn had done a version, as well. “And we hadn’t seen one from any other college, so we said, ‘Why don’t we just go ahead and be the first college to create our own version….’ We just thought it would be a very fun thing to do.”
About the Howard Thurman Center:
https://www.bu.edu/thurman/about/
As a way to follow Dr. Thurman’s blueprint for the building of community, the HTC encourages students to:
Be introspective to learn who they are
Expand their intellectual, social and spiritual horizons
Contemplate and discuss contemporary local, national and international issues
Reflect on how they can contribute to the world while pursuing what “makes them come alive”
How dare she! : summing up the Republican response to the blue wave of Democratic women in the House
This week the House of Representatives is back in Democratic control. This solid majority includes a record breaking number of women whose diversity reflects the United States.
The response from Republicans and their supporters? A loud “How dare she!”
First up was Pelosi for having the composure and audacity to brand Trump’s peevish shutdown of government over funding of the Wall as the #Trumpshutdown. Her move during the meeting with him made him literally sit up out of his chair and say “What?!?”
That she has followed that up by expertly gathering the support she needed to become Speaker again, then following that up by expertly overseeing the introduction of appropriate legislation to start the New Year only angers them more.
How dare she!
Then came the release of a snippet of Ocasio-Cortez dancing in a video supposed to show her as “clueless.” Apparently in the Republican world view, being a young woman dancing, expressing joy and having fun is somehow shameful. Likely add a dollop of self-hatred that the guy who posted this probably found her attractive, since that undercuts the Republican meme that Democratic women must be unattractive. Then, not only did people react in a completely opposite way to the video the that poster expected, but Ocasio-Cortez even posted a new dance video in between actively working on policy matters.
How dare she!
Given the many capable, powerful and, yes, joyful Democratic women raising their voices and crafting legislation in the New Congress, we will likely be hearing many more repetitions and variations on “How dare she” in the coming months.
Let the sputtering commence.
Supreme Court denies Trump administration request to immediately enforce new asylum rules
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-denies-trump-administration-request-to-immediately-enforce-new-asylum-rules/2018/12/21/e9cdaf32-03c8-11e9-b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d7f649adc951The Supreme Court on Friday denied the Trump administration’s request that it be allowed to immediately enforce a new policy of denying asylum to those who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border, a change that lower courts declared possibly illegal.
Four justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh — would have granted the administration’s request to let the order go into effect.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit earlier this month kept in place a lower court decision that stopped the policy’s implementation, saying it was simply a way around specific language in federal law that allows all who enter the United States, regardless of where, to apply for asylum.
I bet Trump is fuming about this.
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