Recap of this week in the revolution: Senate passes resolution to undo Trump tariffs. Kat Abughazaleh targeted by weaponized DOJ and Trump regime to revoke disability benefits. Warships deployed to Venezuela. Updates on the government shutdown.
The good...
Donny 2-Dolls announcing tariffs for everyone a few days before chickening out and rolling them back. Then announcing them again. Then rolling them back...
The Senate passed a resolution to undo many of the Trump regime's global tariffs in a 51-47 vote.
The vote was mostly passed by party lines, with all Democrats voting yes, along with 4 Republicans. The resolution nullifies the presidential declaration of a state of emergency that the Trump regime was using to justify its usurpation of Congress's authority to levy tariffs.
But don't get excited. The Senate vote is only one step. The measure would have to be approved by the House (Which has been out of session for weeks because Johnson refuses to swear in the newest representative) and signed by Trump, and that's not going to happen.
The bad...
The Trump regime is charging 6 people, including congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, in a federal indictment through the Department of Justice for their actions in protesting the ICE-stapo's human rights violations taking place in Chicago.
This authoritarian tactic is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of all Americans guaranteed by the Constitution. But it's also a sign that the Trump regime is afraid of Abughazaleh and other popular candidates who dare to oppose them.
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay.
The Trump regime is rewriting the rules that govern who is eligible for disability benefits. The argument they are making is that the changes are necessary to reduce the federal deficit and prop up the failing Social Security system, but funds for disability benefits do not come from these sources. In all likelihood, the changes will only push more people into early retirement, causing even more strain on Social Security, while the money saved would sit in the disability benefits trust, unable to be used for other purposes.
The changes are likely to have a disproportionate impact on Trump-supporting states, since many of these states have higher-than-average numbers of workers receiving disability benefits. The proposed changes could cause as many as 1.5 million workers to lose their eligibility for disability benefits.
The ugly...
An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 flies over the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) on July 28, 2017.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, the largest warship in the United States Navy, is making its way to the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela. Meanwhile, the guided missile destroyer USS Gravely is docked in Trinidad and Tobago.
Venezuealan President Maduro has denounced the United States, calling these deployments and the wanton destruction of Venezuelan watercraft in international waters an attempt by the United States to fabricate an "eternal war" against his country.
To date, the United States has killed at least 43 Venezuelans in international waters, claiming that they are smuggling drugs into the United States, but not offering any evidence to support those claims.
Keeping you informed...
Image by Kaz Vorpal from Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Federal workers nationwide are missing their paychecks while the government remains shut down with no end in sight. Some of these workers still have to show up to work every day, but most do not.
The House of Representatives, on the other hand, continues to be paid. But they aren't showing up for work, since the House has been out of session since September 19. The Senate convenes a few times a week and votes on the continuing resolution proposed by the House, which they continue to reject.
The standoff continues, and if it continues into next week (which it probably will), it will become the longest government shutdown in the history of the United States. The current record for the longest government shutdown was from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019 (during Donny 2-Dolls' first term as president).
The standoff continues, with Democrats holding out for extensions of healthcare subsidies for the Affordable Care Act to prevent a doubling or tripling of healthcare premiums for millions of Americans. The Republicans refuse to make any concessions or negotiate on a new continuing resolution to get the government funded again.
Due to the shutdown, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits have been cut off as of November 1. This means that, in addition to millions of government workers not being paid, tens of millions of Americans will start to go hungry as the holiday season begins.
Military members did get paid on October 15th and 31st through an illegal allocation of funds that was not authorized by Congress. ICE-stapo agents are also being paid through illegal allocations of funds.
Sounds of the revolution...
Jesse Welles [Link]
The Resistance [Link]
On the lighter side...
