I know some people are upset that Booker and others criticized aspects of Obama’s record but: 1. there are valid criticisms of Obama, and 2. Biden is running almost exclusively as a return to Obama so it leaves his opponents little choice but to say: “We can do better”
Campaigns are about the future and making it better than the past so you shouldn’t run for president unless you think you can make America better than it was when Obama was president
I don’t think there is any reason for handwringing about Dems criticizing each other. No one will remember or care by Nov 2020. Think about all the things Republicans said about Trump.
A greater risk is not adequately testing the candidates and ending up with the wrong one
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1. An internal Trump doc claims that having a Michael Jordan "Jumpman" tattoo and wearing "high-end urban street wear" makes you a likely member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TDA) gang.
This kind of "evidence" is used to justify summary deportations to a Salvadoran prison
2. The "ALIEN ENEMY VALIDATION GUIDE" creates a point system to determine whether a Venezuelan over 14 years of age is a TDA member. Anyone scoring eight points or higher "are validated as members of TDA."
1. The Social Security Administration and DOGE are GASLIGHTING AMERICANS.
They are telling millions of beneficiaries that reports they were closing SSA field offices were fake news. Actually, these closures were PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED and LEASES WERE CANCELED.
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2. In Campbellsville, KY, for example, the owner of a 12,750-sq-ft office building leased to the SSA for a field office was informed by the GSA that the entire lease was being terminated.
The SSA lease was also listed as terminated on the DOGE website
3. News of the closure generated protests from residents and politicians A couple of weeks later, the building owner in Campbellsville received another letter from the GSA saying it was reversing its decision to terminate the lease
The lease termination was also deleted from the DOGE website
Trump has installed a DOGE operative as the new Chief Information Officer of the Social Security Administration in an apparent effort to evade a federal court order blocking DOGE affiliates from accessing databases containing the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans.
2. Popular Information obtained an internal memorandum from Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek announcing Scott Coulter, a DOGE operative previously assigned to NASA and the SSA, as the SSA's new CIO.
3. The move, which was not announced publicly, seems related to a federal lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions On March 21, the federal judge overseeing the case granted plaintiffs a TRO which prohibited SSA from granting access to databases with Americans' personal info to the DOGE team
On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration secretly enacted a new policy to require 75K more people to visit field offices every week
"The havoc and destruction they’re causing is no doubt going to break the agency and hurt the public," an SSA source said
2. Each year, the SSA automatically issues millions of Social Security numbers and cards to non-citizens granted work authorizations as part of an agreement between the SSA and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
The agreement is known as Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE)
3. On Wednesday, the SSA sent an internal message informing staff that that the EBE program for "noncitizens granted work authorization" has been "temporarily" frozen
It is unknown how long the freeze will be in place or if it will ever be lifted
1. As a candidate, Trump promised to protect access to the abortion pill.
Trump said that he staked out his position in a "long and hard campaign" and was "strongly against" restricting access.
Trump emphasized that he would stand by his "commitment."
Things have changed.
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2. Trump claimed during the campaign that the "Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill." While SCOTUS dismissed a case challenging the abortion pill's legality, it did so only for technical reasons.
3. It found that the plaintiffs, a group of right-wing doctors, lacked standing.
The case that the Supreme Court dismissed is continuing, with states substituted in as the plaintiffs. And there are similar lawsuits filed in other federal courts.
The lawsuits argue that the sale of mifepristone violates the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that has been ignored or limited by courts
3. The biggest change contemplated by the memo is to require "internet identity proofing" for "benefit claims… made over the phone."
When an SSA customer is "unable to utilize the internet ID proofing, customers will be required to visit a field office to provide in-person identity documentation"
Currently customers can make claims and verify their identity without using the internet or visiting a SSA office. Fraud is extremely rare because there are many safeguards in place.
Because the SSA serves a large population that is either older or disabled, many cannot access the internet.