cliffside
cliffside's JournalSenate Hearings for Trump's Cabinet Picks Have Begun. Here's the Schedule.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/us/politics/trump-cabinet-senate-hearings-schedule.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pU4.CAId.44v_yAOqw1xq&smid=url-share
"Selections for attorney general, secretary of homeland security, secretary of state and Treasury secretary are among those set to have hearings this week.
The Senate has scheduled hearings for a dozen of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s picks for some of the most significant positions in his new government.
Many of these candidates have previously visited Capitol Hill for meetings with individual senators whose support they may need in the final confirmation vote. Now they will appear before Senate committees that oversee the agencies that they have been selected to lead.
Here’s the schedule for this week: ..."
Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen
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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/18/climate/insurance-non-renewal-climate-crisis.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ik4.Kbbp.4jrIVvnCJ0Mh&smid=url-share
"... None of it mattered. His insurance company, Homesite Insurance, dumped him. “Property is located in a brushfire or wildfire area that no longer meets Homesite’s minimum standard for wildfire risk,” the letter read. (Homesite did not respond to a request for comment.)
Mr. Zimmel has company. Since 2018, more than 1.9 million home insurance contracts nationwide have been dropped — “nonrenewed,” in the parlance of the industry. In more than 200 counties, the nonrenewal rate has tripled or more, according to the findings of a congressional investigation released Wednesday.
As a warming planet delivers more wildfires, hurricanes and other threats, America’s once reliably boring home insurance market has become the place where climate shocks collide with everyday life.
... Now, for the first time, the scale of that pullback is becoming public. Last fall, the Senate Budget Committee demanded the country’s largest insurance companies provide the number of nonrenewals by county and year. The result is a map that tracks the climate crisis in a new way..."
Interactive map
See Where Home Insurance Policies Were Dropped in Your State
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/18/climate/insurance-nonrenewal-rates-policies-state-map.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ik4.kRi2.cmwwveVV_Srx&smid=url-share
Watching Lawrence re the spending bill, government shutdown this weekend, raising the debt ceiling ...
they want to blame raising the debt ceiling on Biden. It does not need to be raised until June.
Oligarchy is not just a Russian phenomenon. It exists right here in the USA - Bernie Sanders
Video is about 5 minutes long. We can slice and dice each wrong rule or person and be overwhelmed trying to swat every fly that comes our way or we can look for the source. Until we acknowledge the money in politics, which is just getting worse, we are just treading water.
Tomorrow is the deadline, note to self ...
if you are a senior.
I started looking at my part D options a couple of weeks ago. For the past few years things have been stable and I've just rolled over to the same plan, meds change etc. but all was relatively the same. Not so this year, a drug from the dermatologist has suddenly become very expensive under my plan, not a large concern because if needed ($50 to $700+) Not too concerned because it is not needed too often, but do wonder why the jump in cost?
No longer covering Synthroid, just a generic which makes my thyroid med which makes my numbers fluctuate too much.
Bottom line with the drugs that Medicare can negotiate for and the reduced out of pocket maximum I'm thinking the plans/companies need to make the deficit up somewhere.
So check your plans, I'm not touching my supplemental plan but do look at part D each year.
Indivisible on H.R. 9495: Advocacy still works, y'all
https://indivisible.org/statements/indivisible-hr-9495-advocacy-still-works-yallNov 12, 2024
"Washington, D.C. — Today, Ezra Levin, Indivisible’s co-founder and co-executive director, released the following statement following the successful defeat of H.R. 9495 in the House of Representatives:
“This bill, which would have handed incoming President Trump new powers to unilaterally go after his political opponents, was on a glide path through the House. Republicans were lined up to support it, and Democrats, frankly, had been asleep at the wheel and were poised to rubber stamp it.
“But then something really significant happened. Dedicated advocates got to work, and rang the alarm bells - loudly. Reporters started tuning in, and organizations committed to opposing Trump’s fascism reached out to Democratic congressional offices. Constituents hit the phones - Indivisibles contributed thousands of calls to their elected representatives in Congress in the hours before the vote. And champions in the House, like Rep. Lloyd Doggett, furiously began shaking their colleagues awake...
“This is the way we’ll make it through Trump 2.0. By staying vigilant, sticking together, and demanding our lawmakers hold the line every time. This was a first, early test - and we passed.”
Rachel Maddow brought this up tonight her show ... now this bill is coming up again for a vote.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9495/text
https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-republicans-voted-give-trump-treasury-more-power-1984733
Full List of Democrats Who Voted for Bill That Gives Trump Admin More Power
"... The House voted against the GOP-led Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act Tuesday, with 256 representatives voting in favor, shy of the 270 needed to pass the bill. Over 200 Republicans along with 52 Democrats supported the bill, and one Republican joined the 144 Democrats who opposed it.
The bill would give secretaries of the United States Treasury the power to designate nonprofit organizations as "terrorist-supporting" and, thus, strip those groups of their tax-exempt status. The bill's passage would apply the amendments made in it to taxable years after its enactment, including those of the incoming Trump administration.
... Under the bill, once an organization is notified about its "terrorist supporting" designation, it would have 90 days to appeal before it is stripped of its 501(c)(3) status.
The law would not require Treasury officials to explain the reasoning behind the decision or for the department to provide evidence."
https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/house-plans-vote-legislation-would-give-executive-branch-unchecked-power
House Plans a Second Vote on Legislation That Would Give the Executive Branch Unchecked Powers to Silence Dissent
November 18, 2024
https://indivisible.org/resource/tell-your-representative-vote-no-hr-9495-stop-trump-attacking-dissenting-organizations
"Tell your Representative to Vote NO on H.R. 9495 to Stop Trump From Attacking Dissenting Organizations"
Zillow started publishing climate risk on homes for sale, buyer beware ...
I learned about firststreet.org in the environmental group here on DU and had read elsewhere that Zillow would begin to add these climate risks to their website in January, not sure it would be this firm or another one.
My daughter is leaving FL and moving back north 
When I looked at homes for sale in the area, climate risks are already listed if a home is an active listing.
You can look by zip code or a specific address, climate is not waiting for us to wake up, insurance companies, lending institutions are looking at the risk.
Thank you to the environmental forum on DU!!!
https://firststreet.org
Not sure there is a more perfect song, for yesterday, today and tomorrow ...
Wake up, everybody
No more sleepin' in bed
No more backward thinkin'
Time for thinkin' ahead
The world has changed so very much
From what it used to be
There is so much hatred
War and poverty
Woah, oh
[Verse 2]
Wake up all the teachers
Time to teach a new way
Maybe then they'll listen
To whatcha have to say
'Cause they're the ones who's comin' up
And the world is in their hands
When you teach the children
Teach 'em the very best you can
[Chorus]
The world won't get no better
If we just let it be, na, na, na, na, na, na
The world won't get no better
We gotta change it, yeah
Just you and me
Trump Taps Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to Slash Government ... share article
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/us/politics/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk4.h5lr.8-vZJxTQbPKS&smid=url-share"The two wealthy entrepreneurs will lead what the president-elect called the Department of Government Efficiency, which he said would seek “drastic change.” But the announcement left a lot unanswered.
How do you slash, cut, restructure and even dismantle parts of the federal government?
If you’re President-elect Donald J. Trump, you turn to two wealthy entrepreneurs: the spaceship-inventing, electric-car-building owner of a social media platform and a moneymaking former pharmaceutical executive who was once one of your presidential rivals.
Mr. Trump said on Tuesday that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead what he called the Department of Government Efficiency. It will be, he said, “the Manhattan Project” of this era, driving “drastic change” throughout the government with major cuts and new efficiencies in bloated agencies in the federal bureaucracy by July 4, 2026...."
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Number of posts: 541