December 23, 2024

Monday, December 23, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

A Victory for children, science, healthcare, Democracy, Democrats!

A Loss for Elonald, as Jimmy Kimmel named them.

In the House, where Representative Wexford originated the bill, it received only four no votes, all Republican. It returned $63 million of the $190 million in the original budget bill Trump and Musk stopped for children’s cancer research and care, importantly extending annual cancer research funding of $12.6 million through 2031 at the National Institutes for Health to continue researching the biology of childhood cancer and structural birth defects.

BTW. Not a single article has been written about this bill by any news outlet, anywhere. The only mention of it has been on social media.

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Social Security is now a little fairer.

Congress Approves Full Social Security Benefits for Public Sector Retirees

The Senate passed bipartisan legislation early Saturday that would give full Social Security benefits to a group of public sector retirees who currently receive them at a reduced level, sending the bill to President Biden.

The vote to clear the measure was a lopsided 76 to 20, reflecting the broad popularity of an effort to allow approximately more than 2.8 million public pension recipients — some of them teachers, firefighters and police officers — to collect Social Security benefits at the same level as other beneficiaries.

The House passed the bill by a wide margin of 327 to 75 last month after a bipartisan group of lawmakers forced it to the floor, and President-elect Donald J. Trump recently* threw his support behind it.

The rapid and resounding approval of the measure, which would cost nearly $196 billion over a decade, was notable at a time when Congress is in a protracted dispute over spending and debt, with Republicans promising huge cuts and members of both parties routinely lamenting the ballooning of the nation’s debt.

The bill eliminates two provisions set up decades ago to shore up Social Security’s solvency. Projections show the Social Security fund will run out of money in 2038 and, if no action is taken before then, beneficiaries would see a 27 percent cut in benefits. Passage of the measure speeds up that timeline by six months.

Twenty-seven Republicans joined Democrats in support.

The two provisions were designed to prevent what is known as “double dipping” on retirement benefits by certain public employees and their relatives.

It primarily affects two groups. One is public employees who receive pensions that are exempt from Social Security payroll taxes, but who also worked at least 10 years in jobs that required them to pay into the system. Such workers appear in the Social Security system as though they earned far less over their lifetimes than they actually did, and since the program pays out a higher proportion of low earners’ incomes in benefits, they receive a larger retirement benefit than they otherwise would. Another is people who receive public pensions but also become eligible for Social Security survivor benefits upon the death of a spouse or family member.

Under the current law, both groups face a reduction in their benefits. The legislation on its way to enactment would allow them to receive the full amount.

“We have spent decades working to pass this legislation, and tonight is a victory for all the public servants who will finally get the Social Security they have earned,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who was a lead co-sponsor of the bill. The bill marked Mr. Brown’s final legislative achievement, after he lost a brutal and expensive re-election bid last month.

“Tonight, Congress ensured that police officers, firefighters, teachers and public servants across Ohio will be able to retire with the Social Security they spent their lives paying into,” he said.

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and a lead sponsor of the measure, framed the issue as a “long overdue” matter of fairness affecting teachers, firefighters and police officers as well as some federal employees who were hired before 1984, when the federal pension system was brought under the Social Security system.

In a floor speech Wednesday, Ms. Collins cited one of her constituents, a retired female schoolteacher who had to return to work at age 72 after her husband’s death to make financial ends meet. The woman’s husband was a Navy veteran who paid into Social Security for 40 years, but since she received a public pension from the school system, her surviving spousal benefits through Social Security were reduced by two-thirds.

“This is an unfair, inequitable penalty,” Ms. Collins said. Public sector workers who are currently being penalized, she said, “have earned these benefits.”

Public sector retirees and their allies on Capitol Hill in both parties have pressed for the measure for decades. It has sailed through Congress over the last several weeks, bypassing the usual committee process after proponents in the House collected 218 signatures on a so-called “discharge petition” to force it to the floor. Senate leaders also skipped committee consideration.

But it faced vocal pushback in the Senate from fiscal conservatives. Several senators, mostly Republicans, warned that the bill could set off a chain reaction of unintended consequences by eliminating the two provisions.

“We all agree the status quo is unfair, and it penalizes millions of hardworking Americans,” said Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, an independent who railed against the federal debt. “But we also have an obligation to honor our promises to ensure that Social Security is going to be there for the people who have paid into it and have earned it, and also those generations who come after.”

Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, argued that a bill affecting the financial integrity of Social Security was too important to rush through at the end of the year without debate. The nearly $200-billion setback for the trust fund, he argued, would only make it more difficult to fix the longer-term issue of Social Security’s solvency.

“There’s so much riding on us getting this right and having the courage to fix Social Security over the next few years,” he said.

Other Republicans said the legislation righted a wrong that should have been addressed a long time ago.

“I’m just glad we’re finally getting it done,” said Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma and a close ally of Mr. Trump’s. “It should have been resolved years ago.”

Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, said he had pushed the issue for 30 years in Congress and has repeatedly heard lawmakers promise, “We’ll fix it next year.”

“They never have,” Mr. Kennedy said in an interview Wednesday. “People are entitled to receive every penny that they earn, and the way the law works now, they’re not.” (New York Times).

• Trump’s supposed support of the corrective Social Security Bill, Dec. 17, 2024.

I found no Trump support for this bill anywhere else than in this conversation reported by the National Fraternal Order of Police. At lest he didn’t get involved in stopping the bill, and he will never get the chance to veto it. President Biden signed it into law.

NATIONAL FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE

WASHINGTON, DC - Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, and Executive Director Jim Pasco met yesterday with President-elect Donald J. Trump at his home in Mar-a-Lago to discuss issues of mutual interest to the FOP and the incoming Administration. They also talked about the pending Senate votes on H.R. 82, the “Social Security Fairness Act”—the FOP’s top priority.

“During our meeting, President-elect Trump expressed his commitment to help us pass this critical legislation, which will ensure public employees receive the benefits they have earned—just like every other American who paid into Social Security,” Yoes said.

President-elect Trump told the FOP leaders: “You have been fighting for this for many years, and I know how important it is to you. You and your members have been good to me, and I am going to help you with this."

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The GOP will have one fewer Representative in the House.

Granger stepped down as the Appropriations Committee chair in April, has been absent from House votes since July, and will retire on Jan. 3 when her term expires.

With this new information, total count for the House in 2025 will now be 218-215. The GOP and Johnson hang on by their finger-tips.

Get ready to fight to win special elections, though this one in Texas may prove to be the exception.

But we will certainly win bigly in 2026. That is almost tomorrow.

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More Clarence Thomas corruption, if you keep track.

Here are more unreported gifts from Harlan Crow.

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Trump has suddenly turned his attention to Panama.

Ignorant of any history, Trump knows nothing about the relationship between the US and Panama. Like a toddler, he just decides he wants something and wails.

Trump doesn’t believe that individual countries are entitled to their own sovereignty. The U.S. ceded its control to Panama in 1999.

Trump wants Panama to charge lower fees to U.S ships using the canal, or he says Panama has to return control of the canal to the United States. He says he will take the canal back.

Trump cheated Panama before.

From ProPublica’s report, June 30, 2019.

Trump Companies Accused of Tax Evasion in Panama

In the latest chapter in ongoing litigation, the private equity fund that bought what used to be called the Trump Ocean Club claims the Trump entities pocketed money that should have gone to the Panamanian government.

The owners of a 70-story Panama City hotel tower formerly managed by President Donald Trump’s companies are accusing them of stiffing the Panamanian government.

In a legal filing Monday in an ongoing lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, private equity manager Orestes Fintiklis and the company he leads, Ithaca Capital Partners, claimed that two Trump companies failed to pay Panamanian taxes equal to 12.5% of the management fees they drew from the hotel.

The Trump entities were allegedly supposed to withhold those fees in advance and pay them to the government regardless of whether the property was profitable or not. Instead, the Trump companies simply kept the money, the suit claims, “thus intentionally evading taxes.” That and other financial irregularities exposed Fintiklis and the companies he represents “to millions of dollars in liability,” according to the suit, which also claims Trump companies sought to cover up their actions. The filing does not say whether a tax penalty has been levied by Panamanian authorities.

Fintiklis declined to comment.

One of his crazy friends claims she was the source of Trump’s madness.

Take over Greenland. Make Canada the 51st State. Now take back Panama.

MAGA boy sure dreams big imperial dreams, like his friend Vlad.

Honestly the whole Panama flap, Trump is honest to god scared to death to actually use the military. So no worries Panama. He’s honest to god, scared to death. He’s such a small, weak, whiney, sissy

— Adam Kinzinger (@adamkinzinger.bsky.social) 2024-12-22T22:40:00.948Z

BTW. Trump isn’t forgetting. He still wants to take over Greenland.

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Meet the trans daughter of anti-transgender activist, Elon Musk.

Elon Musk’s trans daughter Vivian responds to his transphobia- Go Touch Some F- -cking Grass.”

On Monday, July 22, Elon Musk recorded an interview with right-wing influencer Jordan Peterson, where he discussed environmentalism, religion, population dynamics, and a broad array of other topics.

However, the most notable part of the conversation came when he spoke negatively about his transgender daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson. Musk claimed that the “woke mind virus” killed her, referred to her as his son, and even shared her deadname—a term for a transgender person’s old name which they no longer use—with tens of millions of listeners.

Now, Wilson is firing back, stating that much of what Musk said is “completely made up,” that she is very much alive, and that he should “go touch some fucking grass.”

In the interview with Peterson, after talking about population growth and reproduction, Musk spoke about his own transgender daughter, stating, “I was tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, [Vivian], before I really had any idea of what was going on… and I was told [Vivian] might commit suicide… It wasn’t explained to me that puberty blockers were actually just sterilization drugs, so I lost my son. They call it deadnaming for a reason. The reason it’s called deadnaming is because your son is dead. My son [Vivian] is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.” He also added, “it’s incredibly evil and the people who are promoting this should go to prison…”

Later, Musk responded in a tweet to Gays Against Groomers, claiming that Wilson was “born gay and slightly autistic,” loved “musicals and theatre,” and would pick jackets for her father, calling them “fabulous” at the age of 4. He attempted to paint Wilson as being “tricked” into being transgender, claiming that she is actually a gay man, a common and unfounded claim from anti-trans activists.

Now, Vivian is firing back. In a post to the Threads platform, Vivian states that none of what Musk claims is true. See her full response here:

There’s a lot of stuff I need to debunk which I will get to don’t worry, but I want to start with what I find the funniest which is the notorious “slightly autistic” tweet. This is gonna be a bit so just bear with me.

This is entirely fake. Like, literally none of this ever happened. Ever. I don’t even know where he got this from. My best guess is that he went to the Milo Yiannopoulis school of gay stereotypes, just picked some at random and said “eh- good enough” in a last-ditch attempt to garner sympathy points when he is so obviously in the wrong even in his own fucking story.

I did not have a “love of musicals & theatre” when I was four, because y’know… I was fucking four. I did not know what these things were.

My earliest real experience with musicals was when my twin brother had a hamilton phase in 8th/9th grade and overplayed it so much in the car to the point where for a long time I swore off the entire genre.

I never picked out jackets for him to wear and I was most certainly not calling them “fabulous” because literally what the fuck. I did not use the word fabulous when I was four because once again I would like to reiterate… I was four. Like this is so obvious I don’t even think it warrants explanation but apparently people believe this nonsense so here I am.

This entire thing is completely made up and there’s a reason for this. He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there, and in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness. Obviously he can’t say that, so I’ve been reduced to a happy little stereotype f*g-ing along to use at his discretion. I think that says alot about how he views queer people and children in general.

As for if I’m not a woman… sure, Jan. Whatever you say. I’m legally recognized as a woman in the state of California and I don’t concern myself with the opinions of those who are below me. Obviously Elon can’t say the same because in a ketamine-fueled haze, he’s desperate for attention and validation from an army of degenerate red-pilled incels and pick-mes who are quick to give it to him. Go touch some fucking grass✨ - Vivian Jenna Wilson

Musk has recently emerged as a prominent anti-transgender activist, channeling what appears to be significant time and money into opposing trans-inclusive policies. In his interview with Peterson, Musk claimed to have discussed with California Governor Gavin Newsom a new bill that prevents schools from being forced to out transgender youth to their parents. Following Newsom's signing of the bill, Musk announced plans to relocate X/Twitter and SpaceX employees to Texas, a state known for its harsh anti-transgender laws, including book bans and prohibitions on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

For those who write the laws in California, fathers like Musk are likely the people they have in mind when considering laws designed to increase the safety of transgender youth. Musk’s reaction to his own daughter coming out as transgender appears to be extreme, moving entire families over transgender-protective laws after being radicalized over his own daughter’s gender identity.
For that, Wilson also has words for her father, “I want to make one thing absolutely clear. I disowned him, not the other way around.” (Erin Reed, Substack)

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One Trump down, more to come!

What has happened? Trump whisperers were claiming Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would name Trump’s daughter-in-law Senator from Florida when Trump named the elected and current Senator Marco Rubio Secretary of State.

What has happened will probably become clear soon? This is just a hint to expect something.

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The limits of the MAGA-verse.

The MAGA-verse, with President-elect Trump and Elon Musk at the helm, continues to wield unprecedented power over Congress — but it has also found its limits.

Why it matters: Three times now, the influential voices surrounding Trump — often organizing on X — have failed to get exactly what they want.

Just since Trump and Congressional Republicans electoral victories...

John Thune was elected to be Senate majority leader, despite a fevered push by Trump allies to elect Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) He didn't even make it past the first round of votes.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was forced to withdraw from consideration to be attorney general. Despite being celebrated by some in Trump's orbit, the votes weren't there from Senate Republicans.

38 House Republicans defied Trump by voting against a short-term spending deal he explicitly asked for.
Congressional Republicans went against Trump's wishes again by voting for a spending bill that didn't include an increase in the country's debt ceiling.

What we're hearing: "I think the big loser in all this is probably [Speaker Mike] Johnson — but also Trump," one Republican senator told Axios, requesting anonymity to speak candidly.

Raising or suspending the debt ceiling was "the one thing [Trump] said he wanted, and they're not gonna give it to him."

Between the lines: There is no denying that an X post from Musk or a Truth Social post from Trump still holds significant sway over an important bloc of Congressional Republicans.

But they have proven to be far more effective at shooting down ideas and plans, rather than making the case for things.

One notable exception: The outpouring of support for Trump's Defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth seemed to help keep his nomination fight alive after a brutal week early this month. (Axios)

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