If you care about literacy, education, knowledge, etc., keep this from happening in your school district. Houston—a major city with a population of over 2 million, 189,000 students, and 274 schools—has a state-appointed school superintendent because one schools struggled to meet state standards. He is closing libraries in 28 schools in the eighth-largest U.S. school district and make them into “discipline centers.” No, it’s not a joke. And it’s not part of his budget cut to fire 600 central office positions.
Thanks to federal monies and denial of state services, Texas has a $32 billion surplus. The superintendent generously offers the opportunity for school librarians to apply to other district positions. He calls the program his New Education System and claims that closing the libraries ensures that “the most disadvantaged students in Houston receive the most support.” He picked libraries because they had “the physical space.” The new superintendent’s predecessor planned to put a librarian at every school in a five-year plan.
Under the “leadership” of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), House GOP members grow more polarized. Their current solution? Go home early.
The House managed to pass an appropriations bill for military construction and the VA by 219-211, primarily on party lines with a 219-211 vote and likely DOA in the Senate. GOP Reps. Tim Burchett (TN) and Ken Buck (CO) voted with Democrats against the measure that included anti-diversity and anti-abortion amendments. Normally the least controversial of the 12 spending measures, this year’s version is filled with conservative policies and cuts military housing money for troops and their families.
GOP internal arguments about funding and policies caused its leadership to postpone plans for a Friday vote on the agriculture/FDA appropriations bill. Instead, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced that the House departs a day early; it doesn’t return for another 48 days—almost seven weeks. The two major arguments are slashing funding far more than the new law passed to raise the debt ceiling and including more “culture wars” amendments in appropriations bills such as banning the sale of the abortion medication mifepristone in pharmacies or by mail, an amendment in the ag/FDA bill.
The vacation period leaves Congress only 12 working days to pass 12 appropriations before the September 30 deadline. According to McCarthy’s agreement with the conservative Freedom Caucus, each bill must be passed separately. Each one will need agreement with the Senate to be sent to the president for signing. The Senate doesn’t agree with either of the slashed funds or conservative amendments, and far-right House Republicans are already talking about causing a government shutdown, claiming that it wouldn’t negatively affect the U.S. people.
In their march of discrimination, conservative Republicans are inserting anti-transgender amendments into several appropriations bills—defense, aviation, housing development, ag/FDA, and labor/education—which would block insurance and healthcare benefits in blue states which protect access to this care. Other GOP amendments ban funding for contraceptives, mental health and substance abuse services, and HIV prevention.
On its last day before a lengthy vacation, the GOP-led House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution and Limited Government (the name changed to remove Civil Rights and Civil Liberties) had a hearing on gender-affirming care. It’s called “The Dangers and Due Process Violations of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Children,” and no doctors providing care for transgener youth were called as witnesses. According to the description, it covers “how children are being coerced by adults in positions of authority into life-altering and medically questionable gender transition procedures without full understanding of the meaning or impact.” Witnesses include a member of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group the Family Research Council and a representative of the Independent Woman’s Law Center, a “dark money group” which considers trans women a “threat” to women’s sports.
As the House prepared to go home, the Senate passed a defense bill without the culture wars by 86-11. It authorizes $886 billion for fiscal 2024, the amount from the debt ceiling law passed earlier this year. Six Democrats, four Republicans, and one Independent voted against the measure. Military personnel would receive a 5.2 percent pay increase in the bill that provides $9.1 billion for competing with China and $300 million for Ukraine.
All the other appropriations bills, 11 of them, have moved out of the appropriations committee with bipartisan votes for the first time in ten years. The committee hasn’t passed all 12 annual appropriations bills since 2018. Committee leaders Patty Murray (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) said that this achievement “shows that it is possible for Congress to work together and work through real differences—to find common ground and produce serious, bipartisan bills that can be signed into law.” At least that may be possible in the Senate.
A federal judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan and promoted to chief judge by George W. Bush, has told Mississippi that it cannot ban assistance with absentee voting during this year’s primaries or general election. He ruled that the Mississippi law violates the Voting Rights Act and ruled that any voter who is blind, disabled or unable to read may receive assistance “by a person of the voter’s choice,” other than the voter’s employer or union. The portion of the law banning “ballot harvesting,” ballots mailed or taken to ballot boxes by another person, was also struck down. State defendants trying to protect the law could not give any data to show that “Mississippi has a widespread ballot harvesting problem.” The state already has a highly restrictive law on absentee voting.
After the Federal Reserve raised the prime rate by 0.25 percent on Wednesday, a disgruntled Wall Street caused the stock market to drop. The Dow lost 237 points, perhaps with the Feds’ promise that it had one more increase before it quit. Yet all indicators show that increasing the interest has saved the U.S. economy. The inflation rate has already dropped from 9 percent a year ago to a 3 percent annualized rate this past quarter, close to the goal of 2 percent.
This week, a report shows the economy grew by an annual rate of 2.4 percent, faster than expected and away from a recession with an expanding economy for the fourth consecutive quarter. Salaries are growing faster than prices, people are still spending, and last week’s unemployment benefits’ filing is the lowest level in five months. Biden blocked a crisis by increasing the debt ceiling, and his administrations overcame another crisis with regional banks. Republicans, who discuss only bad news about Democrats, are largely silent after their false claims that Biden is mismanaging the economy.
President Joe Biden’s investments in infrastructure and clean energy also boost the economy with new bridges and roads, airport improvements, and manufacturing plants for electric vehicles inciting widespread private investments far earlier than many had predicted. Business investments in infrastructure rose by 56 percent in the most recent quarter, providing one-third of the economic growth. Morgan Stanley gave these investments in a revision of the year’s GDP at 1.3 percent, triple the previous one. The government has allocated $299 billion in infrastructure projects, and private companies announced another $503 billion in their investments.
These people get paid $174,000 a year to do this:
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) swore at a group of teenage Senate pages resting in the Capitol rotunda early Thursday morning after working late the night before on National Defense Authorization Act amendments. One of the pages wrote a transcript of his invective:
“Wake the f‑‑‑ up you little s‑‑‑‑. … What the f‑‑‑ are you all doing? Get the f‑‑‑ out of here. You are defiling the space you [pieces of s‑‑‑].”
Van Orden asked, “Who the f‑‑‑ are you?” One person said they were Senate pages, and he said:
“I don’t give a f‑‑‑ who you are, get out. You jackasses, get out.”
Senate pages typically rest in the rotunda after a night of hard work. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) defended them later in the day:
“I understand that late last night, a member of the House majority thought it appropriate to curse at some of these young people—these teenagers—in the rotunda. I was shocked when I heard about it, and I am further shocked at his refusal to apologize to these young people. I can’t speak for the House of Representatives, but I do not think that one member’s disrespect is shared by this body, by [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)], and myself.”
Van Orden weakly tried to defend himself but has shown his temper before. A 17-year-old library page in his home state told her parents she didn’t feel safe returning to the library after he demanded to know who set up a gay pride display. Van Order, a former Navy Seal, sexually harassed women in the military and attended the January 6 insurrection. A photo of his office showed alcohol and beer for a party before he berated the teens. Thursday was their last day.
In the sharing at presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) prayer breakfast, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told the crowd she gave up having sex with her fiancé so that she could arrive on time. She said, “I know he can wait” to the Christian group who may oppose having sex outside marriage. She added, “I’ll see him later.”
Nel's New Day 