#politics

🟢 Politics | 3/10 🇻🇪 Venezuelan opposition and government meet Dinorah Figueras, president of the 2015 National Assembly, met with current president Jorge Rodriguez. A joint working group was established to strengthen democracy. #OSINT #NewsGroup #Venezuela #Politics #Dialogue

Buried deep inside a 192-page intelligence authorization bill is Section 622, titled “United States-Israel Intelligence Sharing Enhancement.” It would require the president, acting through the director of national intelligence and as necessary the secretary of defense, to “expand and enhance intelligence sharing with the Government of Israel” on a list of subjects that encompasses almost every topic of intelligence interest in the Middle East. The bill, put forward by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would prohibit any suspension, reduction, or limitation of such sharing “except on the basis of a specific and identifiable national security concern determined by the President.” Any such exception would require a report to Congress within fifteen days detailing not only the reason for the change but also the categories of information involved. The same report would require an assessment of the anticipated impact on regional security and various other matters. This proposal is one of several recent moves by those in Washington who carry the Israeli government’s water to keep the United States tied to Israel despite plummeting support for the country among the American public. The most salient form of U.S. support to Israel has been more than $300 billion in economic and especially military assistance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to get ahead of the declining public support and avoid embarrassing losses by suggesting it would be fine with him to phase out the military aid.

Stephen Colbert Nods to Obama's Tan Suit at Presidential Center Opening https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/style/obama-tan-suit-stephen-colbert.html #Politics #Fashion #History

Democratic Socialist Defeats Centrist in the D.C. Mayoral Primary https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/us/elections/washington-mayoral-primary.html #Politics #Elections #Socialism

Representative Tom Kean to Return to Congress in 12 Days, Aide Says https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/nyregion/representative-tom-kean-return-to-congress.html #Politics #Congress #Elections

cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/55685 The Trump administration has emphasized in recent days that the New World screwworm infection found in a calf in Texas did not pose a threat to the United States’ larger cattle herd, which is at its lowest point in 75 years due largely to drought conditions—but the US Department of Agriculture is now acknowledging that cases of the parasite have been found outside the Texas containment zone and as far away as in New Mexico, as Republican officials attempt to blame the Biden administration for the outbreak. While Democratic lawmakers are among those connecting the arrival of screwworm—a flesh-eating bug that feeds off the living tissue of warm-blooded animals and had been eradicated in the US in 1966—to cuts by President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that specifically targeted screwworm monitoring programs, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins doubled down on claims that an “open border policy” under the Biden administration was to blame. “This does trace back to the last administration and the open border policy, and the movement of millions of people and their animals up from South America through Central America,” said Rollins with certainty on Monday. As David Dayen explained at The American Prospect Tuesday, former President Joe Biden placed a ban on bison, horse, and cattle imports from Mexico in 2024, which Trump lifted in February 2025. At the same time, DOGE, under the leadership of Trump megadonor and tech billionaire Elon Musk, cut screwworm monitoring efforts and animal disease control and prevention efforts, slashing 1,300 employees from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Rollins did reinstate the live import ban last May as screwworm cases were rising in Mexico and began funding prevention programs in Texas. But a $600 million facility for breeding sterile screwworm flies—a key component of successful eradication efforts—is not scheduled to be completed until late next year, and sterile flies that have been dispersed from a facility that opened in February at Moore Air Force Base in South Texas only amount to “about one one-hundredth of what it would take each week to eradicate the pest,” Dayen wrote. He also noted that Rollins has attempted to blame Biden—who has not been in office since January 2025—despite the fact that the total average lifespan of a screwworm fly is 21 days. “The more likely explanation is that an administration with an antipathy to government ignored government’s purpose until it was too late,” wrote Dayen. The USDA established a 12-mile quarantine area around the affected area last week when the case was detected in South Texas, but on Monday the agency said another case had been found in Gillespie County, over 100 miles from where the initial case was reported. A dog was also found to be infested in Lea County, New Mexico, more than 400 miles away. The parasite is not expected to affect food safety, as it feeds on living tissue, but the outbreak raises concerns about rising beef prices, which are already high due to the low volume of cattle in the US. The high prices of fertilizer and fuel due to the war in Iran, and of equipment and repairs due to Trump’s tariff policy, have also put a strain on the cattle industry. “The cattle producer in the US has already been under extreme financial stress,” Joe Maxwell, president of Farm Action Fund and a farmer in Missouri, told The American Prospect. “This is serious, the screwworm outbreak. But it’s even more serious because of the financial position they were already under.” In response to Rollins’ claims, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Tuesday: “Let’s be clear about what happened: DOGE cut the programs and staff that tracked dangerous outbreaks like screwworm.” “So this has nothing to do with Joe Biden,” she said, “but Trump and DOGE definitely screwed our cattle industry.” From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Call your reps every day! So let’s check in our list today. (thanks to https://www.5calls.org/ )

• There must be congressional monitoring of Trump’s Iran deal.
• Stop abuse of ICE detainees.
• Oppose the dangerous “Save Our Bacon” Act
• Oppose HUD’s Anti-Trans housing rule change.
• Reform FISA Section 702 to Stop Government Surveillance
• (Federal and State) Publicly investigate the figures in the Epstein files

Find your rep: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Senators: Schiff: 202-224-3841 Padilla: 202-224-3553 (Fresno 559-497-5109 and Sacramento 916-448-2787)

Governor Newsom: 916-445-2841

#politics #democrats #democracy #California #santaclara #USPol #CAPol

the obama presidential center is having a grand opening. how long before trump tries to put his name on it? #politics #chicago

That dilemma stems from newly proposed USPS rules that seek to comply with an executive order President Donald Trump signed this spring to crack down on mail-in voting. If courts let the order stand, it would give the federal government an unprecedented role in elections — and could put even more voter data in the hands of Trump officials searching for supposed election fraud.

Sometimes humour hits the nail right on the head... so here's something from Private Eye that sums up the UK's pensions problem more concisely than any reasoned analysis might manage! #pensions #humour #politics