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Politics / Chris Christie Vows To Take Down Donald Trump In 2024 Election

« on: Yesterday at 08:36:04 AM »

Chris Christie Vows To Take Down Donald Trump In 2024 Election: It's 'Not Going To End Nicely' For Him

“You better have somebody on that stage who can do to him what I did to [Senator Marco Rubio], because that’s the only thing that’s gonna defeat Donald Trump,” Christie, 60, said during a town hall at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, the Associated Press reported.

Christie was referring to a moment in his 2016 campaign when he challenged Rubio's lack of experience.

“And that means you gotta have the skill to do it. And that means you have to be fearless because he will come back and right at you,” Christie said of challenging Trump, 76, in the future. "So you need to think about who's got the skill to do that and who's got the guts to do that because it's not going to end nicely. No matter what, his end will not be calm and quiet."

Christie also cited what Trump said during his CPAC appearance. "Trump said a few weeks ago, 'I am your retribution,'" Christie said. "Guess what, everybody? No thanks. He doesn’t want to be my retribution. That’s baloney. The only person he cares about is him.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/chris-christie-vows-to-take-down-donald-trump-in-2024-election-it-s-not-going-to-end-nicely-for-him/ar-AA19ceM4?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=2ec3257cf4e847fd8c943196441ee7e5&ei=69

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General Discussion Forum / U.S. renewable electricity surpassed coal in 2022

« on: Yesterday at 08:27:53 AM »

Electricity generated from renewables surpassed coal in the United States for the first time in 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Monday.

Renewables also surpassed nuclear generation in 2022 after first doing so last year.

Growth in wind and solar significantly drove the increase in renewable energy and contributed 14% of the electricity produced domestically in 2022. Hydropower contributed 6%, and biomass and geothermal sources generated less than 1%.

“I’m happy to see we’ve crossed that threshold, but that is only a step in what has to be a very rapid and much cheaper journey,” said Stephen Porder, a professor of ecology and assistant provost for sustainability at Brown University.

California produced 26% of the national utility-scale solar electricity followed by Texas with 16% and North Carolina with 8%.

The most wind generation occurred in Texas, which accounted for 26% of the U.S. total followed by Iowa (10%) and Oklahoma (9%).

https://apnews.com/article/renewable-energy-coal-nuclear-climate-change-dd4a0b168fe057f430e37398615155a0?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sybil%20Daily%2023_0329&utm_term=Its%20Sybil%20Daily%20Subscribers

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Politics / Senate Chaplain: Thoughts and Prayers not Enough

« on: March 28, 2023, 10:33:31 PM »

The Senate chaplain on Tuesday issued a prayer for lawmakers to “move beyond thoughts and prayers” after a shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, killed three students and three staff members. 

Chaplain Barry C. Black in his opening prayer on Tuesday told lawmakers, “Eternal God, we stand in awe of you. Lord, when babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers."

“Lord deliver our senators from the paralysis of analysis that waits for the miraculous. Use them to battle the demonic forces that seek to engulf us,” Black added.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/senate-chaplain-calls-on-lawmakers-to-move-beyond-thoughts-and-prayers-after-nashville-shooting/ar-AA19bTFr

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Politics / Republican lawmakers break with Trump over Jan. 6 riot video

« on: March 28, 2023, 05:46:37 PM »

Top Republican lawmakers criticized former President Donald Trump over his decision to highlight the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol during his first 2024 campaign rally.

“People who violated the law should be prosecuted. And they have been,” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn told NBC News.

Trump kicked off his campaign event in Waco, Texas, with a song called “Justice for All,” performed by a choir of featuring individuals imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/28/trump-blasted-over-jan-6-riot-video/11555056002/

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Politics / The gun that divides a nation

« on: March 27, 2023, 06:26:58 PM »

The AR-15 thrives in times of tension and tragedy. This is how it came to dominate the marketplace – and loom so large in the American psyche.

It is revered as a modern-day musket.


It is reviled as a tool for mass killers.

The AR-15 wasn’t supposed to be a bestseller.

The rugged, powerful weapon was originally designed as a soldiers’ rifle in the late 1950s. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” an internal Pentagon report raved. It soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in the Vietnam War, where the weapon earned a new name: the M16.

But few gunmakers saw a semiautomatic version of the rifle — with its shrouded barrel, pistol grip and jutting ammunition magazine — as a product for ordinary people. It didn’t seem suited for hunting. It seemed like overkill for home defense. Gun executives doubted many buyers would want to spend their money on one.

The industry’s biggest trade shows banished the AR-15 to the back. The National Rifle Association and other industry allies were focused on promoting traditional rifles and handguns. Most gun owners also shunned the AR-15, dismissing it as a “black rifle” that broke from the typical wood-stocked long guns that were popular at the time.

“We’d have NRA members walk by our booth and give us the finger,” said Randy Luth, the founder of gunmaker DPMS, one of the earliest companies to market AR-15s.

Today, the AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States, industry figures indicate. About 1 in 20 U.S. adults — or roughly 16 million people — own at least one AR-15, according to polling data from The Washington Post and Ipsos.

Almost every major gunmaker now produces its own version of the weapon. The modern AR-15 dominates the walls and websites of gun dealers.

The AR-15 has gained a polarizing hold on the American imagination. Its unmistakable silhouette is used as a political statement emblazoned on T-shirts and banners and, among a handful of conservative members of Congress, on silver lapel pins. One Republican lawmaker, Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama, introduced a bill in February to declare the AR-15 the “National Gun of America.”

It also has become a stark symbol of the nation’s gun violence epidemic. Ten of the 17 deadliest U.S. mass shootings since 2012 have involved AR-15s.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-america-gun-culture-politics/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f002

This is a very lengthy and informative article

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Politics / Explainer-What happens if the US Supreme Court bans affirmative action?

« on: March 27, 2023, 11:37:40 AM »

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether colleges can continue to consider race as part of their admissions decisions, a practice commonly known as affirmative action.

Here is what to know about the policy, its history and the possible consequences of the court's decision.

WHAT IS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION?

In the context of higher education, affirmative action typically refers to admissions policies.

Colleges that take race into consideration say they do so as part of a holistic approach that reviews every aspect of an application, including grades, test scores and extracurricular activities.

The goal of race-conscious admissions policies is to increase student diversity. Schools also employ recruitment programs and scholarship opportunities intended to boost diversity, but the Supreme Court litigation is focused on admissions.

WHICH SCHOOLS CONSIDER RACE?

While many schools do not disclose details about their admissions processes, taking race into account is more common among selective schools that turn down most of their applicants.

In a 2019 survey by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, 24.6% of schools said race had a "considerable" or "moderate" influence on admissions, while more than half reported that race played no role whatsoever.

Nine states have banned the use of race in admissions policies: Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.

***

WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE OUTCOMES?

The court could choose to maintain the current system, eliminate race-conscious admissions altogether or settle on something in between, such as more stringent limits on the practice.

A decision banning affirmative action would force elite colleges to revamp their policies and search for new ways to ensure diversity. Many schools say other measures will not be as effective, resulting in fewer minority students.

In briefs filed with the court, the University of California and the University of Michigan - top public school systems from states that have outlawed race-conscious admissions - said they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on alternative programs intended to improve diversity, but that those efforts have fallen far short of their goals.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/explainer-what-happens-if-the-us-supreme-court-bans-affirmative-action/ar-AA197CkJ?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=815d5b8f07cb4195a108054e26628fc3&ei=19

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Politics / Trump’s campaign raked in $1.5M since his claims of arrest. The Grift Continues

« on: March 23, 2023, 09:05:47 AM »

Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign hauled in $1.5 million in grassroots contributions since he began alerting his legion of supporters of his possible impending arrest by the Manhattan district attorney, according to a report Wednesday.

The former president turned to his Truth Social messaging platform Saturday to trumpet that he would be arrested on Tuesday by DA Alvin Bragg over a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election.

Since then, his campaign has added $1.5 million to its coffers, Fox News Digital reported.

The former president’s initial messages blasting the “HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE” and his call for supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK” were immediately amplified in nonstop media reports and statements from his allies and supporters.

Trump also didn’t let up — nor did his campaign — even though Tuesday came and went without his arrest.

https://nypost.com/2023/03/22/trumps-campaign-reportedly-raked-in-1-5-m-since-his-claims-of-arrest/

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Politics / Obamacare Significantly Reduced Racial Disparities In Health Care Access

« on: March 22, 2023, 05:01:30 PM »

Former President Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation has proved the gift that’s kept on giving for Black and Brown communities in America.

Since its passage in 2010, the Affordable Care Act – better known as Obamacare – has helped cut the U.S. uninsured rate nearly in half while significantly reducing racial and ethnic disparities in both insurance coverage and access to care – particularly in states that expanded their Medicaid programs, according to a new report issued by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit that promotes a high-performing healthcare system.

Obamacare has reduced racial and ethnic disparities in both insurance coverage and access to care — particularly in states that expanded their Medicaid programs, the report’s authors noted.

While much of that progress occurred between 2013 and 2016, federal data show that more than 5 million people gained coverage between 2020 and early 2022, driving the uninsured rate down to a historic low of 8 percent.

https://seattlemedium.com/researchers-find-obamacare-has-significantly-reduced-racial-disparities-in-health-care-access/

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General Discussion Forum / Humanity is on thin ice: UN releases alarming report on greenhouse gas emissions

« on: March 20, 2023, 11:10:08 AM »

Greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to increase, exacerbating the challenge world leaders face in preventing the impacts of climate change from worsening, the United Nations warns in its latest climate report.

Emissions in 2019 were about 12% higher than they were in 2010 and 54% higher than they were in 1990, largely due to increases in fossil fuel production, industrial activities and methane emissions, the report, released Monday by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, states.

As a result, human-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe, leading to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people, according to the report.

The window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future is "rapidly" closing, the report states. It will take a "quantum leap in climate action" to mitigate global warming, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.

"Humanity is on thin ice -- and that ice is melting fast," Guterres said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/humanity-is-on-thin-ice-un-releases-alarming-report-on-greenhouse-gas-emissions/ar-AA18QWEW?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=d3e9619245e14a769798a2649faf84cd&ei=34

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Politics / DeSantis says Ukraine War is Territorial Dispute

« on: March 15, 2023, 08:18:31 AM »

DeSantis calls Russia-Ukraine war a ‘territorial dispute,’ questions US involvement

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) this week responded to a questionnaire to argue that protecting Ukraine against Russia’s yearlong invasion should not be one of America’s “vital national interests,” knocking the Biden administration for indicating it’ll support Kyiv as long as it takes.

“While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said.

***

“The Biden administration’s virtual ‘blank check’ funding of this conflict for ‘as long as it takes,’ without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges,” the Florida governor said.

***

Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine more than a year ago, and the U.S. has given billions in aid to Ukraine as it fends off Moscow’s forces. Recently, the Biden administration pledged to send battle tanks to Kyiv, and now faces pressure to send over F-16 fighter jets.

DeSantis said F-16s and long-range missiles should be “off the table” because the moves could risk “drawing the United States into the conflict and drawing us closer to a hot war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3899201-desantis-protecting-ukraine-not-one-of-americas-vital-national-interests/amp/

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Politics / Republicans Brace for Tim Scott’s Entrance into 2024 Race

« on: March 14, 2023, 06:27:40 PM »

Republicans are bracing for Sen. Tim Scott’s (S.C.) increasingly likely entrance into the 2024 presidential race, arguing that he could be a voice for unity in a party that has become dominated by grievance politics.

Scott hasn’t made a formal decision on a 2024 run but has moved quickly to lay the groundwork for a campaign. He’s begun hiring staffers and courting would-be donors, headlining the closing dinner of the Club for Growth’s annual donor retreat in Palm Beach, Fla., last weekend.

His message has, so far, been one of optimism. While he has railed against what he has called Democrats’ politics of “victimhood” and “despair,” he’s also laid out a lofty vision for “a new American sunrise.”

It’s a tempting message for some Republicans, who have grown weary of the grievance-driven politics of the era of former President Trump. Yet many Republicans say they’re unsure of Scott’s prospects in a GOP primary, arguing that his themes of optimism and unity may not get him far with a conservative base eager for a fight.

“Obviously, everyone is trying to figure out what lanes there are in the primary or how many lanes there are,” said one Republican strategist, who has worked on presidential campaigns. “But I think Republicans right now are angry, and I don’t know if Tim Scott captures that.”

Indeed, Scott’s political brand is a far cry from that of someone like Trump, who used his remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend to telegraph a 2024 campaign of “retribution.”

In a speech at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, last month that some Republicans saw as a warm-up to a presidential stump speech, Scott criticized President Biden, accusing him of exploiting “the painful parts of America’s past.” But he also struck a note of unity, describing himself as a “messenger of hope.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3894454-republicans-brace-for-tim-scotts-entrance-into-2024-race/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sybil%20Daily%2023_0314&utm_term=Its%20Sybil%20Daily%20Subscribers

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General Discussion Forum / Man wrongfully convicted of 1988 crime released from jail after serving 34 years

« on: March 14, 2023, 07:30:13 AM »

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A man who was behind bars for decades has now been set free.

On Monday, just after 6 p.m., 57-year-old Sydney Holmes, walked out of the Broward County Jail a free man and into the arms of waiting family members.

Asked by a reporter what it feels like to be hugged by his family now that he’s free, he said, “I can’t put it into words. It’s overwhelming.”

Broward prosecutors announced his upcoming release earlier in the day. He had already served 34 years of a 400-year prison sentence.

Holmes contacted the State Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit in November 2020, claiming his innocence from an armed robbery case from 1988.

“I never did give up hope,” said Holmes. “I knew this day was going to come, sooner or later, and today is the day.”

He was convicted of being the driver for two men who robbed two people at gunpoint outside a convenience store.

Holmes was just 23 years old when he was convicted of being a getaway driver in an armed robbery near Fort Lauderdale.

7News was told that someone close to one of the victims was driving around and saw a car, and claimed it was the one involved in the robbery. It happened to be Holmes’ car.

He would then spend 30 years in Florida State Prison due to that claim.

On Monday afternoon, he was listening in a courthouse as both the Broward County State Attorney’s Office and his own lawyers talked about how he was wrongly convicted, and how the method used to identify a suspect back in 1988 was flawed.

“There’s no evidence tying Mr. Holmes to the robbery other than a flawed identification of him as a suspect,” an attorney said. “No fingerprints, no physical evidence, nothing but a one witness ID that we believe, your honor, was a bad ID.”

Prosecutors determined Holmes had a plausible claim of innocence based on how he became a suspect in the first place, and a shaky eye-witness identification.

The sentence for Holmes was thrown out.

https://wsvn.com/news/local/broward/man-convicted-of-1988-crime-released-from-jail-after-serving-34-years-of-400-year-prison-sentence/#:~:text=On%20Monday%2C%20Broward%20prosecutors%20said%2057-year-old%20Sydney%20Holmes%2C,innocence%20from%20an%20armed%20robbery%20case%20from%201988.

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General Discussion Forum / 23 charged with terrorism in Atlanta ‘Cop City’ protest

« on: March 07, 2023, 08:02:44 AM »

ATLANTA (AP) — More than 20 people from around the country faced domestic terrorism charges Monday after dozens in black masks attacked the site of a police training center under construction in a wooded area outside Atlanta where one protester was killed in January.

The site has become the flashpoint of ongoing conflict between authorities and left-leaning protesters who have been drawn together, joining forces to protest a variety of causes. Among them: People against the militarization of police; others who aim to protect the environment; and some who oppose corporations who they see as helping to fund the project through donations to a police foundation.

Flaming bottles and rocks were thrown at officers during a protest Sunday at “Cop City,” where 26-year-old environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, or “Tortuguita,” was shot to death by officers during a raid at a protest camp in January. Police have said that Tortuguita attacked them, a version that other activists have questioned.

https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-police-training-site-protest-fire-1ba4362c9337e27ecaf44283fc72fc56

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Politics / Trump tells CPAC he will stay in 2024 presidential race even if indicted

« on: March 05, 2023, 09:50:18 PM »

Former President Donald Trump continues to reign supreme over the conservative wing of the Republican party, attending the four-day annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Closing out the conference, Trump presented himself as the ultimate leader to take on Democrats and "establishment" Republicans and calling the upcoming 2024 presidential election the "final battle."

"In 2016, I declared I am your voice. Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution," Trump said as he continues to ramp up his third presidential campaign.

"This is the final battle, they know it. I know it, you know it, and everybody knows it, this is it. Either they win or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country."

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-stay-2024-presidential-race-indicted-tells-cpac/story?id=97628469

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Politics / Trump 'is not going to be the nominee' in 2024, N.H. Gov. Chris Sununu says

« on: March 05, 2023, 09:42:55 PM »

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Sunday predicted that former President Donald Trump will lose the GOP nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Sununu, a Republican who has said he is thinking about his own White House bid, said, Trump is "in the race. He's not going to be the nominee, that's just not going to happen."

"There’s very few people that are on the fence, whether they’re with him or not with him or whatever it might be. So, I think he just has his lane and then there’s everyone else, which is I think a vast majority of the party that’s looking for an alternative,” Sununu said.

"We're moving on. I just don't believe the Republican Party is gonna say that the best leadership for America tomorrow is yesterday's leadership," he added.

Sununu had previously said in an interview on ABC News last month that he doesn’t think Trump could win against President Joe Biden in 2024.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-is-not-going-to-be-the-nominee-in-2024-n-h-gov-chris-sununu-says/ar-AA18fjwG?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=152f4933554a4d63ad4aa5085c3cf031&ei=20