Direct popular vote judge elections have their own set of issues - at the very least for lower courts
For instance, they tend to lead towards judges issuing out harsher penalties when campaigning than they normally would to appear “'tough on crime”
Have to ask Musk first
Rules were unfinished - they were trying to rewrite a second version after Republicans kept blocking it in court. The unfinished rules already had republicans threatening to sue about it. Presumably ran out of time to complete it
He’s still looking at other more narrow areas that are less able for Republicans to make BS challenges on
Biden is still pursuing other avenues for debt relief before his term is up. On Friday, his administration announced an additional $4.28 billion in debt relief for 54,900 borrowers in Public Service Loan Forgiveness — a result of ongoing improvements to the program. Despite not being able to pass broad relief, Biden, over the course of his term, has provided relief to nearly 5 million borrowers through changes to various programs.
The democratic party is actually actively promoting the “President Musk” language for that exact reason. They’re also trying to aim to say it during appearances where Trump is watching
The “President Musk” messaging is by design, at least partially. This week, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter and another person briefed on it, at senior levels of different Democratic congressional offices, and also within the Democratic National Committee, discussions have been had about having party leaders and elected officials actively portray Musk as effectively Trump’s boss, and to do so during television appearances that the president-elect is likely to see. The idea is that it’s a cost-free opportunity to potentially drive a petty wedge between the notably mercurial and ego-obsessed Trump and his similarly emotive pal Musk, and to sow some chaos in the upper ranks of the Republican Party.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/president-musk-dems-troll-trump-elon-1235211922/
It didn’t include the debt ceiling raising that Trump & Musk blew things up for. They were able to get some of the funding changed in the second version back. For instance, Senate dems were able to do some maneuvering to get back most of that pediatric cancer funding that president-elect Musk and house republicans cut of their CR bill
The house had already technically passed an earlier bill that approved similar funding (intended to be merge into the main CR), so the senate dems just went back to that earlier bill and voted on it and got that passed
No, senate dems were able to do some maneuvering to resecure most of that pediatric cancer funding that president-elect Musk and house republicans cut of their CR bill
The house had already technically passed an earlier bill that approved similar funding (intended to be merge into the main CR), so the senate dems just went back to that earlier bill and voted on it and got that passed
By convention, not by law
The Constitution does not explicitly require the speaker to be an incumbent member of the House of Representatives, although every speaker thus far has been, and as a member the speaker also represents their district and retains the right to vote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives
When debt isn’t paid off for long enough / they think it’ll be too much work to collect, it’s often sold by those organizations to private debt collectors. Here instead of collecting the debt, they just buy the debt then agree to forgive it
I get the sentiment, but medical debt forgiveness this way is nothing new. It’s not helpful to lambast every single good story with dooming. Constant despair isn’t helping us move the needle and fight back. Point out the fights where they, otherwise we’re just making people too despaired to fight at all
The non-profit they partnered with has been doing work forgiving debt since 2014. And there’s been high profile cases of people doing this too. In 2016, John Oliver forgave $15 million worth of medical debt for ~9 thousand people
Other local governments have done the same thing with the same non-profit:
In January this year, New York City said they were going to do the same for around 2 billion worth of medical debt for 500 thousand people over 3 years (paying around $18 million to buy that debt)
In 2023, Oakland County Michigan forgave around $200 million (paying around $2 million for the debt)
And so on
Until it stays that way forever. By law it’s supposed to adjust every year for inflation, but it hasn’t since 2009 as the inflation adjustment gets shot down every year mostly because of the obvious optics of raising pay
Low pay is a real problem and barrier in local and state government, we shouldn’t want the US congress to add another barrier for people with lower income. There’s already enough barriers already
This is not a bad thing in general. Making the pay higher makes it easier for working class people to rely on the pay (especially since you might need a place in DC and your home state). If you keep the pay low, only the richest people with external sources of income can afford to stay in
Edit: to clarify, it is certainly still frustrating that most of the people who will benifit really don’t need that pay,
I get the sentiment, but medical debt forgiveness this way is nothing new. It’s not helpful to lambast every single good story with dooming. Constant despair isn’t helping us move the needle and fight back. Point out the fights where they, otherwise we’re just making people too despaired to fight at all
The non-profit they partnered with has been doing work forgiving debt since 2014. And there’s been high profile cases of people doing this too. In 2016, John Oliver forgave $15 million worth of medical debt for ~9 thousand people
Other local governments have done the same thing with the same non-profit:
In January this year, New York City said they were going to do the same for around 2 billion worth of medical debt for 500 thousand people over 3 years (paying around $18 million to buy that debt)
In 2023, Oakland County Michigan forgave around $200 million (paying around $2 million for the debt)
And so on
They are buying the debt and then just forgiving it rather than collecting any of it. The hospitals/medical facilities are selling off the debt and get money like they would if they had sold it to a debt collector. Not much for reason for anyone involved here to sue about. They’d have to be extraordinarily spiteful even by republican standards
There are other app views in the works from other people, but yes in the current state it is rather centralized. That’s why I started off saying it was semi-decentralized. I wasn’t claiming it was super decentralized
YouTube does have 8k support and a handful of 8k videos
It’s actually more so the other way around. The backend (PDS and relays) is open source but I believe the AppView is not currently open source
https://github.com/bluesky-social/pds
I think that’s a good part of it, to be honest. Plus I think also helps that Bluesky’s handles look visually less confusing and unusual than the conventional double @ sign for the fediverse
@user.bsky.social vs @user@bsky.social
Plus other things like having starter packs
Who’s now left Bluesky which is probably for the better given his views on a lot of things
I noticed that and deleted my post but the deletion probably hasn’t federated just yet, sorry about that
He’s been appointing judges this whole time, it just doesn’t make headlines. 235 judges didn’t get appointed overnight. Biden has his very real problems, don’t make new ones up that just create apathy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_Joe_Biden