Republicans: continued

[Tero]

65 year old lady that works at a food co op has invited our congressman to come by to see poor people buying food on snap.
https://www.threads.com/@thebriefingwit ... NuPqfyoFoA

He would see real disabled people. And some of those 30 year olds that play video games alm day so they can "enjoy" Medicaid.

[Tero]

RFK Jr has missed his deadline for releasing the true cause of autism.

US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has pledged "a massive testing and research effort" to determine the cause of autism in five months.

Experts cautioned that finding the causes of autism spectrum disorder – a complex syndrome that has been studied for decades – will not be straightforward, and called the effort misguided and unrealistic.

Kennedy, who has promoted debunked theories suggesting autism is linked to vaccines, said during a cabinet meeting on Thursday that a US research effort will "involve hundreds of scientists from around the world."

"By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we'll be able to eliminate those exposures," Kennedy said.

The environmental cause of autism has also not appeared. You would need clusters around a cause, you could map it.

namedbev

RFK Jr. has demanded that a Danish study in the "Annals of Internal Medicine" noting no link between aluminum in vaccines and 50 health conditions, including autism, be retracted. The Journal has declined, being a respectable publication. It's studies are well-documented.

Results:
Cumulative aluminum exposure from vaccination during the first 2 years of life was not associated with increased rates of any of the 50 disorders assessed. For groups of combined outcomes, adjusted hazard ratios per 1-mg increase in aluminum exposure were 0.98 (95% CI, 0.94 to 1.02) for any autoimmune disorder, 0.99 (CI, 0.98 to 1.01) for any atopic or allergic disorder, and 0.93 (CI, 0.90 to 0.97) for any neurodevelopmental disorder. For most individually analyzed outcomes, the upper bounds of the 95% CIs were incompatible with relative increases greater than 10% or 30%.

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326 ... ALS2500997

[Tero]

"With midterms more than a year away, a record number of lawmakers are eyeing the exit."
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/13/nx-s1-54 ... 6-midterms

This includes three sitting senators: Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Colorado Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet.
(I used to tweet to her and Boebert a lot)

some want a better job

On the House side so far, there are nine representatives, five Democrats and four Republicans, looking to make the jump to the Senate, also higher than some recent election cycles. They include Georgia Republican Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, who are looking to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Alabama Republican Rep. Barry Moore, who announced Tuesday his run to fill the seat Tuberville will vacate to run for governor.

There are also eight House representatives — all Republican — running for governor.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Trump has given them the opportunity to let their freak flag fly. It's despicable and ugly.

'GOP Senator Slammed After Invoking Racist "Three Fifths Compromise"'

U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) is under fire after invoking the U.S. Constitution’s racist Three-Fifths Compromise—that mandated slaves be counted only as three-fifths of a person—to defend his claim that undocumented immigrants should not be counted at all in President Donald Trump’s push for an unprecedented new census.

The U.S. Constitution is clear and cannot be changed without a constitutional amendment.

Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 states that all “free Persons” shall be counted:

“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”

The Fourteenth Amendment adds that “the whole number of persons in each State” is to be counted.

Senator Hagerty, who in 2022 voted against legislation protecting same-sex and interracial marriages, suggested that there are other interpretations of the Constitution that would ban undocumented immigrants from being counted in a census, and he claimed that blue states only want the undocumented to be counted for “power.”

“This is all about power,” Senator Hagerty told Fox Business on Friday (video below). “This is why you see these sanctuary cities situated in blue states. That is, blue states that are losing citizens to states like mine in Tennessee, they’re losing citizens, they’re backfilling with illegal aliens.”

Undocumented immigrants have always been counted in every census since there have been people considered undocumented.

Not according to Hagerty.

“This is not what the Founding Father has ever intended to count illegals for the purposes of allocating voting power in America,” he claimed.

When the Founders drafted the Constitution, there were no “illegals,” because almost anyone could freely enter the country. Not until 1929 did entering the U.S. without authorization become a federal crime, and only a misdemeanor.

Hagerty has a different point of view.

“We should only be counting citizens,” he insisted, promoting legislation he has filed, saying he has 18 co-sponsors.

,,,

Asked point-blank by the Fox Business host, “Is it constitutionally legal to do that?” the Tennessee GOP lawmaker replied, “There’s a constitutional interpretation, I think, that has been misapplied. It goes back to slavery days. And you know, what portion of a person is going to be counted, etcetera.”

“A person here illegally should not be counted,” he insisted. “That’s just common sense. We need to fix it.”

Critics slammed Hagerty.

“Someone should mount a giant blowup of the 14th amendment in the Senate Republican cloakroom, because these people apparently haven’t read it,” suggested Matt Bennett, Executive Vice President for Public Affairs for the think tank Third Way.

“The U.S. Constitution is unambiguous. No ‘interpretations’ have been ‘misapplied,'” wrote communications professional Mathew Helman. “As MAGA tries to reverse-engineer a way around the Constitution, we’ll get lots of dishonest word salad like this.”

“So we’re clear,” wrote Wall Street investment banker Evaristus Odinikaeze, “Sen. Hagerty’s ‘legal rationale’ is to drag us back to the logic of the 3/5 Compromise.”

“Counting human beings as fractions was a moral stain on this country, not a precedent to revive. The Constitution requires an actual enumeration of all persons living in the U.S. Anything less is an attack on democracy itself.”

[Sean Hayden]

You’d think you might save more in the long run by taking care of some of the expenses of the undocumented from the start. Either way the states will be paying from day one regardless of what side they’re on politically.

[Tero]

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dragged Medicare chief Dr. Mehmet Oz up a cliff face in a bizarre show of MAHA strength.

Less than a week after a gunman opened fire at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta headquarters, killing a police officer, Kennedy posted a video of himself and Mehmet hiking at the Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/robert-f- ... aha-stunt/

[Tero]

Every day brings fresh horrors from the Trump administration, and nothing comforts like the knowledge that Donald Trump’s supporters are paying the price. In my Jan. 26 article, “Nebraska went big for Trump—and that may kill its economy,” I warned that Nebraska’s reliance on federal programs and its immigrant labor force made it uniquely vulnerable under Trump’s policies.

Turns out, I was right. A quarter later, Nebraska’s gross domestic product has shrunken more than 6% in early 2025, tying it with equally Trumpy Iowa for the worst drop in the nation. That statistic hit the headlines over a month ago, but what’s new is that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins just had to face Nebraskans living through the fallout.

Farmers’ grievances were exactly what you’d expect: Their farms were short-staffed thanks to immigration raids, tariffs raised costs and shrank export markets, and pricing controls made it harder to sell crops.

The state’s all-Republican congressional delegation had a familiar solution: more federal dollars to bail out the same pull-themselves-up-by-their-bootstraps crowd that spent years railing against “socialism.” As Sen. Deb Fischer explained, “There’s a lot of risk involved in agriculture. … You can’t control the weather. … That’s why these safety nets are so important.”

Remember when “safety nets” were supposed to be a scourge?

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., winks during a House Committee on Armed Services Chair hearing on the Department of the Army's Fiscal Year 2026 posture, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, shown in June.
Rep. Don Bacon, who will retire soon and give Democrats a prime pickup opportunity in the House, had his own fix: Expand government mandates for biofuels.

Instead, Trump’s policies may be steering Nebraska straight into a depression. Farm bankruptcies are spiking—259 filings in just the first quarter, surpassing all of last year, according to Ryan Loy, an agricultural economist at the University of Arkansas. He says the financial pressures farmers face now mirror those from 2018 and 2019.

And who was president in 2018 and 2019? Exactly.

Imagine voting for economic devastation—and getting exactly that.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8 ... -voted-for

[Tero]

My governor made a deal for ICE prison camp.
https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/08/19 ... -nebraska/

[Tero]

RFK Jr hates farmers! Nutritious pesticides now banned.

"The livelihoods of American small farmers are based on precariously thin profit margins. During the 2024 election, this group of Americans gravitated further toward President Trump’s promises to improve wages and lower inflation. Farmers’ support for Mr. Trump also swelled thanks to endorsements from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose Make America Healthy Again messaging around combating chronic disease and improving diet and nutrition has resonated strongly with many Americans. Those in the agricultural and food sectors interested in making fresh, healthier foods more accessible to the public believed Mr. Kennedy’s elevation as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services would lead to policies that supported their work."

"Instead Mr. Kennedy has cast doubt, fairly or not, on the utility of established industrial farming practices, such as pesticide use. He has stood by as programs beneficial to American farmers have been cut."

"Nutrition is a core component of Mr. Kennedy’s and the administration’s stated goals. Under Mr. Kennedy’s leadership, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health are beginning research to determine the harm of ultraprocessed foods and food additives. An executive order signed in February instructed federal agencies to work “with farmers to ensure that United States food is the healthiest, most abundant and most affordable in the world.” In May, Mr. Kennedy declared, “We cannot make America healthy again without the partnership with the American farmers.”

But then there have been moves that make farmers question that commitment.

"Look no further than the cancellation in March of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement and Local Food for Schools federal programs. Those cuts saved the government about $1 billion but came at the expense of providing schools, child care centers and food banks with fresh food from local farmers. Access to these foods would presumably be part of the solution for reducing diet-related chronic diseases, which MAHA contends are on the rise in underserved communities. The administration killed the program anyway."

"Many farmers are also alarmed by the anti-science rhetoric coming from Mr. Kennedy and the MAHA movement, especially when it comes to the spraying of pesticide on crops. Michelle Miller, a former farmer who educates consumers about modern farming practices and policies under the name Farm Babe, told me that the situation is complicated; some farmers spray often, some only at the beginning of the season and some not at all. But Mr. Kennedy’s rhetoric around pesticide use in farming is also rubbing people the wrong way and, to some, suggests a deeper ignorance in how food production really works. Ms. Miller told me she does not consider herself a partisan actor, but worries the secretary and his allies are showing real hostility to farmers who use pesticides and herbicides."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/opin ... -maha.html

[Svartalf]

The modern conservative wants Trump to break constitution
https://www.threads.com/@bigescotland/p ... BApRIRURfQ

repugs have been going crazier and crazier for the last 45 years, what do you expect?

[Svartalf]

My governor made a deal for ICE prison camp.
https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/08/19 ... -nebraska/

can you get him relocated there?

[Tero]

More on the state prison industry. The main prison here in town, on a busy highway, had its roof torn off this month.
https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/08/21 ... reactions/

[Tero]

https://bsky.app/profile/acyn.bsky.soci ... 44phxb642p
Nichols: Even though these guys come across as clowns, they're clowns with flamethrowers.. They have the machinery of government behind them. These are people that normally would be struggling to hold on to middle management jobs in a department store somewhere

[Tero]

Conservative justices are partisan hacks
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jackson- ... 177bea185d

"The court’s split decision in National Institutes of Health v. American Public Health Association on Thursday focused on whether the association, 16 states and other plaintiffs could challenge Trump’s cancellation of the grants as “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act, the law governing how executive branch agencies may take actions."

"Five conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — issued an opinion on the emergency docket, without argument, that the plaintiffs can’t bring a challenge to restore the cancelled funding in federal district court, but rather must file suit in the Court of Federal Claims as a claim for monetary damages. Meanwhile, in a seperate issue, five justices — John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Barrett and Jackson — ruled that claims challenging agency action under the APA can be brought in district courts."
"There was no clear reason for the court to rule this way. But it is of a piece with recent decisions by the court’s conservatives helping the Trump administration in cases involving extraordinary claims of executive power by forcing plaintiffs to go through newly invented labyrinthine judicial procedures to obtain relief. Jackson was unsparing in pointing this out.

“In a broader sense, however, today’s ruling is of a piece with this Court’s recent tendencies. “‘[R]ight when the Judiciary should be hunkering down to do all it can to preserve the law’s constraints,’ the Court opts instead to make vindicating the rule of law and preventing manifestly injurious Government action as difficult as possible,” Jackson writes. “This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins.”

“After today’s order, how are plaintiffs like these — federal grantees who believe their grants were terminated pursuant to an unlawful policy — to get complete relief?” Jackson writes. “The Court does not say. The answer, it seems, is they cannot.”

[Tero]

crankyginger
6h
Finding out that Nebraska is going to go bankrupt because the white farmers voted for Trump and all the migrant workers bounced to states that would treat them better (leaving them without a labor force) is my new favorite FAFO of the week. Good job Nebraska. Now you’re REALLY a flyover stat