riversedge
riversedge's JournalWSJ: Trump Admin Threatened Iraq's Access To NY Fed Account Over Proposed Troop Withdrawal
Source: TPM
January 11, 2020 2:01 p.m.
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The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the State Department threatened to cut off Iraq’s New York Fed account in a phone call Wednesday with Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, according to unnamed Iraqi officials. The resulting cash shortage would hurt Iraq’s economy.
Many countries maintain accounts with the New York Fed in order to store government revenue in the form of U.S. dollars. In Iraq’s case, much of that comes from oil sales.
The State Department didn’t respond to TPM’s request for comment on Saturday.
Abdul-Mahdi and Iraq’s parliament have called for American troops to exit the country following the killing, ordered by President Donald Trump, of the top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani outside Baghdad International Airport a week ago.
Trump in turn threatened to sanction Iraq if U.S. troops were expelled. The State Department has refused to recognize Iraq’s call for the troops to leave...................................
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/wsj-trump-admin-threatened-iraqs-access-to-ny-fed-account-over-proposed-troop-withdrawl
Quake-stunned Puerto Rico hit by another 5.9-magnitude shock
Source: nbc news
The earthquake hit as the island's residents were already reeling from a series of major temblors this week, including one with a 6.4 magnitude Tuesday that was the biggest in a century.
Jan. 11, 2020, 9:30 AM EST / Updated Jan. 11, 2020, 12:38 PM EST
A magnitude 5.9 shock hit Puerto Rico on Saturday morning as the island's residents were already reeling from a series of major quakes this week, including one on Tuesday that was the biggest in a century.
The latest quake, which came around 9 a.m. local time, has caused even further damage, mainly in areas around the southern coast where hundreds of homes and schools had already collapsed from the Tuesday temblor that had a magnitude of 6.4.
Saturday's quake, which was initially calculated at magnitude 6.0, also left roughly 5,000 customers without power, according to the island's power authority.
Witnesses said the temblor caused concrete debris from damaged buildings to topple into the streets, mainly around the southern area....................................
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1114021?__twitter_impression=true
https://twitter.com/B52Malmet/status/1215994750773399552?s=20
https://twitter.com/1IronMan2020/status/1216011290650517507?s=20
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1216027496891781120?s=20
Trump claims he pimped out our troops to SA for $$ONE BILLION DOLLARS. WHERE ARE THE RECEIPTS??
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1215834911015428096?s=20
POTUS went on TV last night & announced he pimped US troops out to an authoritarian govt for $1b. It’s completely unclear where this $ went. A pretty big deal! It’s also possible he’s making stuff up, which would be significant for other reasons. It’s not even a news story today.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1216073953019604997?s=20
Whose bank? I want to see proof that it is in the US Treasury’s control. And not just #Mnuchin ‘s word
https://twitter.com/LisaHaderlein/status/1216070151029821446?s=20
https://twitter.com/ginny6363/status/1215837893828190208?s=20
Trump Administration Says Obamacare Lawsuit Can Wait Until After the Election
Source: nytimes
The Department of Justice told the Supreme Court that the case did not represent an “emergency” that would require a speedy ruling.
Jan. 10, 2020, 4:53 p.m. ET
The Trump administration came into office with its top legislative priority clear: Repeal the Affordable Care Act. It failed. Then, when a group of Republican states tried to throw out Obamacare through a lawsuit, the administration agreed that a key part of the law was unconstitutional.
But now that defenders of the law have asked the Supreme Court to settle the case quickly, the president’s lawyers say they are in no particular hurry. The case, which seeks to invalidate the entire health care law, can wait for the lower courts to consider certain questions more carefully, they said in a filing to the Supreme Court on Friday. There is no “present, real-world emergency,” the brief says, that would require the court to rush the case’s progress.
The case argues that changes made to the Affordable Care Act in 2017 make its requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance unconstitutional — and that the provision is so essential to the health care law that the rest of it should be invalidated as well.
The case could have major political implications because the results sought by the Republican states and the Trump administration would cause substantial disruptions. According to estimates from the Urban Institute, around 20 million more Americans would become uninsured because of the elimination of the law’s coverage expansions and protections for Americans with pre-existing health conditions.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/upshot/obamacare-lawsuit-delay-sought-trump-republicans.html
Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer
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4h
This shows Republicans know just how devastating their lawsuit will be for Americans if it succeeds.
That’s why we must continue to fight to uphold protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions.
https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1215792630715551746?s=20
https://twitter.com/emilyinnocent25/status/1215792960232730631?s=20
White Nationalist Rep. Steve King Really Wants You To Stop Calling Him A White Nationalist
Source: huff post
01/10/2020 03:45 pm ET Updated 2 hours ago
If it walks like a white nationalist, talks like a white nationalist and spits racist venom like a white nationalist, it might be Rep. Steve King.
Racist Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) whined that journalists who have pointed out his white nationalist beliefs have made up the term to smear him.
“[White nationalist] is a weaponized term created by the left to attack conservatives with,” King said on the House floor Friday. “It’s one of their weaponized terms because they wore out the word racist and they needed to make up some new terms to be offended by.”
King, a virulent white supremacist, held up a graph apparently showing that the term “white nationalism” spiked following the 2016 presidential election.
“How did it happen that a terminology that had been virtually unused all of a sudden became used multiple times ― up to 30,000 times a year? How did it happen that this is the word that gets tagged on me? Is that an accident, Mr. Speaker? I don’t think so.”
It’s not an accident. .......................
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Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-nationalist-rep-steve-king-whines-that-white-nationalist-is-made-up-term-to-smear-him_n_5e18ca20c5b650c621de307a
King is a crazed man.
https://twitter.com/morethanmySLE/status/1215709181191315456?s=20
https://twitter.com/genereaux64/status/1215753065145323520?s=20
Wisconsin dairy farmers suffer massive blow thanks to Trump's trade war
Source: americanindependent.com
January 10, 2020 4:32 PM
Wisconsin lost 818 dairies in 2019 as farmers across the country suffer from Donald Trump's trade war with China.
The state of Wisconsin, famous for its cheese, lost 10% of its dairy farms in 2019, Dairy Herd Management reported on Thursday. The loss of 818 dairies was the largest decline in Wisconsin history.
Trouble for dairy farmers started in 2018, when Donald Trump engaged in a protracted trade war with China. In retaliation for increased tariffs from the United States, China placed tariffs on a number of U.S. agricultural exports.
As a result, exports of U.S. dairy to China dropped by more than 50% in 2019, according to CNBC.
The Trump administration rolled out a multibillion dollar bailout for farmers as the trade war dragged on, promising to make up for the financial damage caused by Trump's policies.
However, milk producers say the aid is not enough.
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According to Dairy Herd Management, the rate of dairy farmer loss in Wisconsin "has more than doubled in the last few years.".........................................
Read more: https://americanindependent.com/donald-trump-trade-war-wisconsin-dairy-farmers-china/
It is just not the dairy family that is in trouble but the farms support the businesses, schools, roads, etc around them.
https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1215644862541914121?s=20
https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1215654750827569153?s=20
https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1215738832085311488?s=20
Trump will try to block Bolton impeachment testimony; Senate to get case next week, Pelosi says
Source: LaTimes
Jan. 10, 2020 11:54 AM
President Trump said Friday he would invoke executive privilege to try to block his former national security advisor from testifying in a Senate impeachment trial as Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will be prepared to move articles of impeachment to the Senate next week.
Trump’s statement, in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, marked the first time he openly said he would try to block John Bolton from testifying if the Senate were to subpoena his former advisor.
“I think you have to, for the sake of the office,” he said when Ingraham asked if he would try to prevent such testimony.
Whether the Senate would have to accept an executive privilege claim in an impeachment trial is an issue that’s never been resolved.
Trump’s statement came as Pelosi signaled an end to a standoff between House Democrats and Senate Republicans that has delayed a Senate trial of the case.
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Read more: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-01-10/pelosi-trump-impeachment-case
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1215727482898436096?s=20
https://twitter.com/ElpopGolf/status/1215737575283052546?s=20
Pelosi says House not voting on impeachment managers Friday as Senate trial delay continues
Source: wtkr.com
Posted 10:41 am, January 10, 2020, by CNN Wire
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said there will not be a vote Friday to name impeachment managers, a sign that the weeks-long impasse over starting President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate will continue at least into next week.
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Neither Pelosi nor Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have yet budged in their stare down over the two impeachment articles that the House passed last month, charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Pelosi has withheld the articles from the Senate, preventing the chamber from beginning the impeachment trial, as Democrats have pushed for McConnell to allow witnesses to testify in the Senate trial. Pelosi has said she wants to see the “arena” that the impeachment managers will operate in during the trial before naming them and sending the articles to the Senate.
But McConnell has said he will not publish the rules resolution ahead of time and will not agree to witnesses before the trial begins. He’s argued that the Senate should agree to a rule to begin the trial and then later decide on witnesses, just as the Senate did during the 1999 impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton. And he said this week he’s got the votes — all Republicans — to go that route.
Democrats argue that McConnell is not following the Clinton precedent, because the Senate witnesses in that trial had already testified before a grand jury, while the witnesses Senate Democrats are seeking — including former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — refused to testify during the House’s impeachment inquiry.........................
Read more: https://wtkr.com/2020/01/10/pelosi-says-house-not-voting-on-impeachment-managers-friday-as-senate-trial-delay-continues/
TIME's new cover: "We've upped the ante." Why Nancy Pelosi is going all in against Trump
@TIME TIME’s new cover: “We've upped the ante.” Why Nancy Pelosi is going all in against Trump https://ti.me/2QASs8k
https://time.com/5762021/nancy-pelosi-trump-impeachment-gamble/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=politics_&linkId=80332614
https://twitter.com/Mary_Miskanis/status/1215337296356151296?s=20
'We've Upped the Ante.' Why Nancy Pelosi Is Going All in Against Trump
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Pelosi in her office in the U.S. Capitol on December 9.
By Molly Ball January 9, 2020
Nancy Pelosi isn’t wild about the question. The impeachment of President Donald Trump is under way, and I’ve asked the Speaker of the House if she thinks it’s the most important thing she’ll ever do. We’re sitting in her elegant office in the Capitol, on gold-upholstered armchairs around a low table topped with a vase of hydrangeas. Over her shoulder, the sweeping view of the National Mall is shrouded in wintry clouds. For a long moment, the Speaker goes silent as she seems to compile in her mind the list of accomplishments she’d rather claim as her legacy.
“Apart from declaring war, this is the most important thing that the Congress can do,” she finally says. “I’m most proud of the Affordable Care Act. But this is the most serious initiative that I’ve been involved in in my career.”
Pelosi has spent decades at the highest levels of politics, but the past 12 months have been arguably her most consequential. Returning to the speakership after eight years running the House Democratic minority, she established herself as counterweight and constrainer of this divisive President. She outmaneuvered Trump on policy, from the border wall he didn’t get to the budget agreement he signed loaded with goodies that Democrats wanted. She oversaw an unprecedented litigation effort against the Executive Branch, racking up landmark court victories. And she was the tactician behind the investigation that resulted in Trump’s impeachment on Dec. 18.
Nancy Pelosi's Gamble
As the new year dawns, she’s led the impeachment of a first-term President for the first time in history, an action that stands poised to determine the shape of politics in 2020—and history.
What is most striking about this moment in Pelosi’s career is that at the peak of power, she is not protecting her position but rather using it in aggressive, even risky ways. Impeaching Trump is a gamble for Pelosi. It has intensified Republicans’ fealty to the President, rallying his base and supercharging his campaign fundraising, potentially increasing his re-election chances. The polarizing effort could jeopardize Democrats who hold seats in Trump territory, and thereby endanger Pelosi’s House majority. With impeachment, Pelosi is betting her own place in history.
Pelosi has always been a risk-taker, from defying Chinese authorities by protesting at Tiananmen Square in 1991 to pushing Obamacare through the House with nary a vote to spare in 2010. But she is careful to cast impeachment not as a political gambit but as a project to preserve the checks and balances of American democracy. “That’s my responsibility: to protect the Constitution of the United States,” she says.
That battle is playing out on multiple fronts. As Congress returned and Trump launched the country into a potential conflict with Iran, Pelosi sought to rein him in. The House planned to vote Jan. 9 on a war powers resolution designed to limit the President’s ability to escalate the conflict. The behind-the-scenes court battle that Pelosi has field-marshaled aims not just to check Trump’s current power grabs, but also to set precedents that will stop future Presidents from doing the same, or worse.........................................
Giving Birth in USA Getting Even More Expensive: 'These Are Not Small Co-Pays--the Costs Are Staggeri
Giving Birth in America Is Getting Even More Expensive: 'These Are Not Small Co-Pays—the Costs Are Staggering.'
https://www.newsweek.com/giving-birth-america-costs-maternity-fees-child-1480550
By Kashmira Gander On 1/6/20 at 4:00 PM EST
Research has revealed the average out-of-pocket fees women pay for maternity care has risen in the past decade or so, meaning giving birth can cost thousands of dollars.
In 2008, the average out-of-pocket bill for childbirth services was $3,069, rising to $4,569 by 2015. During this time, the cost of a vaginal birth rose from $2,910 to $4,314, and $3,364 to $5,161 for a c-section. Overall, the percentage of women paying out of pocket rose from 93.7 percent in 2008 to 98.2 percent in 2015. The authors of the research published in the journal Health Affairs said the spike was mostly due to increased costs among those with deductibles.
Between 2008 to 2013, women on lower incomes were hit the hardest, but this pattern fell away in 2014 after those on higher incomes paid more.
The team also found women shouldered a higher proportion of the total costs of care over time, despite the price of maternity care remaining the same during this period, at $29,518 in 2008 and
versus $29,314 in 2015. As a result, the proportion paid by patients went up from 12.3 percent in 2008 to 19.6 percent in 2015.
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To reach their findings, the researchers examined data on 657,061 women enrolled in 84,178 plans with large or medium-sized employers from all major regions of the U.S., who gave birth between 2008 to 2015. Most of the participants were white.
Under the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in 2010, employers-based insurance must cover maternity services, the researchers explained. However, insurance companies can pass on certain costs to patients in the form of co-payments and deductibles. According to the authors, 60 percent of women aged between 19 to 64 are covered by employer-based plans, including many lower-income working families..............................................
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