Politicize

Story of the Day: July 8, 2021

Fmr. POTUS Trump has charged the Secret Service over $50,000 since leaving office in January

Former President Donald J. Trump has charged the U.S. Secret Service over $50,000 for guest rooms at his businesses since leaving office. This includes over $10,000 in May at his Bedminster golf course, or $566.64 per night for a four-bedroom "cottage" at the course.

The Washington Post reports that then-Vice President Biden charged the Service over $2,000 per month to use a different cottage on his property in Wilmington, Delaware. Between 2011 and 2017, the Post says, Biden made $171,600 from this.

Trump's businesses charged the government over $2.5 million during his presidency.

Both of these prominent politicians should be ashamed of themselves. Taxpayer money being funneled into your pocket by the people that you are forcing to pay to be able to protect you, which they must do? Despicable, by anyone's standards.

Story of the Day: July 6, 2021

Biden and Democrats depend on young voters and suburban voters in 2020 election

The 2020 election, which was the highest-turnout election by percentage in 120 years, was closely contested by the losing candidate, then-President Donald J. Trump. With false claims of 'voter fraud' and a violation of election integrity, Trump sought to have the results overturned and himself be reinstated as president.

All of the drama surrounding the vote resulted in a lack of a big-picture representation of that record-breaking electorate. Since some exit polling only occurred in-person (and much of the electorate voted by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic), we haven't been able to see a breakdown of the voting blocs that delivered a victory for the Democratic Party's nominee.

Now, Pew Research has published a comprehensive analysis of those voting blocs for the public. It shows that the share of Democratic voters from suburban areas grew by seven percentage points between 2016 and 2020. Furthermore, Biden won in suburban areas, 54-43, while Clinton lost, 45-47.

Young voters also fuelled the Democratic win. Generation Z voters, some of whom were eligible to vote for the first time in 2020, supported Biden by a greater margin than any other age group. Millennials also overwhelmingly supported Biden.

Crucially, Democrats' support grew substantially among independent voters as well. In 2016, independents narrowly supported Trump. But in 2020, they supported Biden by nine percentage points.

What all of this means is that suburban, young, and independent voters will be the most crucial section of the electorate for Democrats in 2022. Keeping them around will be essential, and winning another group of Generation Z voters who become eligible to vote between now and then will also be necessary.

According to Pew, Young voters (those belonging to Gen Z and the Millenials) are more diverse than other generations. They want a more active government than any generations before them, they believe overwhelmingly that climate change is due to human activity, and they usually say that Black people are treated less fairly than white people in the U.S. Very few say that same-sex marriage is bad for society, and about half think that society is not accepting enough of non-binary identifying individuals.

Therefore, young people, the core of the Democratic electorate going forward, are going to demand results. On climate, racial justice, civil rights, and more, the Democrats in power must act to make change. Otherwise, these voters will have little motivation to turnout and drive a Democratic win again in 2022.

Story of the Day: July 5, 2021

Biden's agenda slows down as Congress takes break

President Biden and Congressional Democrats are slowing down their agendas as the "bipartisan infrastructure framework" deal struck by the President threatens to appeal to no one. Biden's $5 trillion spending proposals are hitting a brick wall in the Senate, where Republicans look ready to oppose nearly everything that comes to a vote.

Congress is on a break for Independence Day, and Democrats are still working on the $1.2 trillion agreement between the President and Senate centrists. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will not bring that bill to a vote in the chamber unless it comes accompanied by another, $4 trillion plus 'budget reconciliation' package.

That all-Democrats package would feature provisions to combat climate change, provide affordable health care, shore up child care, and invest in 'human infrastructure.' Centrist Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin, however, are unlikely to support such a large package.

Since it's unlikely that either bill will pass without the other, Democrats must deliberate amongst themselves to compromise on each package, with the progressive wing going down and the centrist wing moving up.

Politically, Democrats tend to be supported by voters that demand results, and $5 trillion in funding is certainly a way to deliver them. But since much of this funding wouldn't be immediate (like the American Rescue Plan's $1,400 checks), there's no guarantee that passing this legislation would have a significant impact on the midterm elections.

Somewhere, the dam has to break for Democrats, or President Biden's agenda may be toast.

Story of the Day: July 4, 2021

Gerrymandering and counter-gerrymandering kick into high gear as 2022 midterm elections approach

Democrats in Maryland, New York, and elsewhere are ramping up their efforts to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives and to counter a practice they have decried countless times.

Gerrymandering, the process of redrawing Congressional district lines to benefit one party or the other, has occurred for centuries. But as elections become closer and politics more divisive, the practice has become an issue with national ramifications. Judges have struck down gerrymandered districts countless times - in North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, and elsewhere.

For years, Democrats have criticized the practice and have held up a frontage of purity when it comes to the issue. But as Republicans step up their efforts in the states they control (a majority), like states in the Deep South and the Midwest, Democrats are searching for a response. They have increasingly placed 'independent redistricting commissions' in charge of drawing Congressional district lines through state-level legislation.

This means that liberals have even less room to look than all of the states they control. In only a few states, where Democratic state delegates have the power to redraw the lines, is it possible to anti-gerrymander and balance the scales.

In Maryland, there is increasing pressure on the legislature to redraw the district lines to cut out Rep. Andy Harris, the only remaining Congressional Republican from that state. It is possible to draw the lines in overwhelmingly-Democratic Maryland to split up the heavy Republican concentration in the state's first district, which Harris represents.

It would be feasible to draw the boundaries in a way that moves the first district to Biden +15 while keeping every other district Biden +20. This possibility certainly attracts Democrats, who are eager to get rid of Harris. (He has broken with the vast majority of his colleagues on many of his votes, from refusing to condemn QAnon and the Myanmar military coup to voting "no" on renaming a North Carolina post office after Maya Angelou.)

Democrats also have major sway over the redistricting in New York, where they could target up to five Republican seats; Illinois; and New Mexico.

It's safe to say that the gerrymandering wars are just getting started, and without some kind of major election and ethics reforms, they're nowhere close to being over. Whoever's ahead in 2022 will likely win the majority in the House of Representatives, with massive ramifications for the 2024 presidential election and beyond.

Story of the Day: July 3, 2021

Another ransomware attack on U.S. impacts "thousands" of businesses

A Russian-based hacking group known as REvil, who carried out the cyberattack on U.S. meatpacking company JBS last month, performed another ransomwear hack on businesses and companies through the information technology and desktop management company Kaseya. Kaseya's software is used by many large IT companies, which in turn have thousands of clients altogether.

The cybersecurity firm Huntress Labs found that at least twenty such IT groups (known as managed service providers, or MSPs) were impacted by the hack. Kaseya's network-management software was used to spread the ransomware code.

When the MSPs were affected by the ransomware campaign, it had a trickle-down effect, causing the hack to affect the clients of the larger MSPs. Huntress Labs says this trickle-down effect has impacted at least a thousand small businesses who have contracted with the affected MSPs.

The hackers used their code to lock these businesses out of their computer systems, causing some victims, like Coop (a large grocery chain in Sweden), to have to shut down their businesses for a day. The cybercriminals were seeking a $50,000 ransom payment from the smaller companies they impacted and a $5 million payment from larger companies.

President Biden is under increasing pressure to be tough on the Russian government, who he says are complicit in the massive cyberattacks. When hacking organization DarkSide attacked the Colonial Pipeline, which provides over 40% of the oil supply to the East Coast of the U.S., Biden said the Russian government had "some responsibility" for the attack, even though DarkSide is not directly affiliated with the Kremlin.

But the Russian government is a known harbor for cybercriminals, and both DarkSide and REvil use software that allows them to avoid targeting potential victims in the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is made up of nine post-Soviet countries, including Russia.

As ransomware attacks become more common, costly, and critical, the U.S. government should consider boosting the resources to agencies like CISA and the NSA to protect U.S. businesses. Talks with Russia should involve these frequent ransomware attacks, which are in the worst interest of the U.S. government, U.S. companies, and U.S. citizens, as well as free-market democracies all over the globe.

Story of the Day: July 2, 2021

Biden declares 'America's back together' as Delta variant spreads

President Biden and the White House are holding a celebration on July 4 to mark 'independence from [COVID-19].' They say that the worst days of the pandemic are behind us and we should be looking to the future - to a potential infrastructure deal and budget reconciliation spending package, and to life after the pandemic.

But the Delta coronavirus variant, which was first identified in India late last year, is threatening to put a stop to the festivities. It's on track to become the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States, and it has already achieved that in the United Kingdom and India.

Bolstered by its apparent advantage in transmission, the variant is causing thousands of deaths each day, all over the world, in places with a lower vaccination rate than the United States. But the U.S. hasn't achieved the herd immunity threshold to drive COVID cases to virtually zero. Only 46% of the population is fully vaccinated against the virus, and 55% have received a single dose. (Two-thirds of individuals ages 18 and above have received at least one dose, and 58% of them are fully vaccinated.)

Fortunately, all three of the vaccines available to Americans are effective against the variant. Pfizer and Moderna say that their vaccines, which use mRNA technology, have the same effectiveness (~95%) against Delta as they do against the original strains of COVID-19. Johnson & Johnson also says its vaccine does not lose any effectiveness (~70%) against the variant.

The fact remains that new cases are remaining steady at over twelve thousand per day, and President Biden's celebration seems a bit premature. The White House, FDA, CDC, and Congress ought to try to find a way to speed up COVID vaccinations once again, or the pandemic may never end.

Story of the Day: July 1, 2021

House passes transportation and water infrastructure bill containing $700 billion in new funding

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed its own infrastructure measure, containing over $700 billion for new projects focused on the environment and conservation. It provides over $300 billion in funding for roads, bridges, and safety, over $200 billion for public transit, and over $150 billion for water programs including drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.

Two Republicans voted with all Democrats to pass the bill, which was written by Democrats. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Or.) said that the bipartisan plan crafted by President Biden and a group of centrist senators was very close to the House bill, and that there was potential for an agreement.

But most Republicans criticized the bill for being too climate-focused, believing that a transportation and infrastructure bill should not include, for example, funding for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in transportation and boosting electric vehicles.

Rep. DeFazio hopes that senators involved in crafting a partisan budget reconciliation bill with provisions for climate change, health care, and child care would use the House-passed bill as a framework.

The bill will likely fail in the Senate because of a lack of Republican support.