#Jackson Administration

[deadpresidents]

"Van Buren is as opposite to General Jackson as dung is to a diamond...He is what the English call a 'dandy.' When he enters the Senate chamber in the morning, he struts and swaggers like a crow in the gutter. He is laced up in corsets, such as women in town wear, and, if possible, tighter than the best of them. It would be difficult to say, from his personal appearance, whether he was a man or woman, but for his large...whiskers."

-- Congressman Davy Crockett of Tennessee, on then-Vice President Martin Van Buren, 1835

[sassyshoulderangel319]

Idk there’s something hilarious to me about the administrator in the flashback being worried about Percy drawing a picture of a horse with wings when he was an actual baby because kids tend to have incredible imaginations anyway and a lot of “perfectly normal” children will draw a lot more weird, whacky, sometimes messed up things than. Just. A Pegasus.

Like. Percy drawing a Pegasus should not have even been a blip on the radar

[tomorrowusa]

Former White House doctor Ronny Jackson is now a House member. He takes reliably MAGA positions on issues before Congress. It looks like Jackson may have picked up an aversion to the truth from his former colleague George Santos.

On his congressional website, the Texas Republican describes himself as a “retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral with nearly three decades of military service.” But that leaves out one big omission—that Jackson was demoted from the senior naval flag rank to captain in July 2022. That move came after the Pentagon inspector general released a scathing report on Jackson’s behavior while serving in Donald Trump’s White House, including that the doctor—who had retired from the Navy in 2019—berated, drank with, and sexually harassed subordinates while serving as the director of the White House medical unit. Jackson was also accused of popping Ambien throughout the workday. Those revelations came with a $15,000 cut in annual pension payouts for a 24-year veteran like Jackson, as well as social stigma within the ranks. “The substantiated allegations in the [Department of Defense inspector general] investigation of Rear [Adm.] (lower half) Ronny Jackson are not in keeping with the standards the Navy requires of its leaders and, as such, the secretary of the Navy took administrative action in July 2022,” Lt. Cmdr. Joe Keiley, a Navy spokesman, told The Washington Post. Jackson casually dismissed the report in his July 2022 memoir, Holding the Line, conveniently skipping over the part where he was formally demoted.

In early 2018 Jackson's bizarrely bullish report about Trump's health made national news.

Dr. Ronny Jackson’s glowing bill of health for Trump

The press briefing he gave at the White House was widely mocked and inspired a sketch on Saturday Night Live.

Two months after that fabulist medical report, Trump tried to appoint Jackson as Secretary of Veterans Affairs to his revolving door cabinet. The move was widely viewed as a reward for services rendered. In April, Jackson was forced to withdraw from consideration. He was too corrupt even for a position in the Trump administration. 😱

Ronny Jackson withdraws as VA secretary nominee

The Jackson scandal is a reminder that we still lack direct credible information on Trump's physical or mental health. Considering that Trump apparently drinks 12 Diet Cokes® a day and is a notorious consumer of junk food, the true state of his health is probably far worse than what Dr. Jackson or Trump's self-reporting reveal.

[the-invisible-queer]

Disclaimer: This is a list of my most played artists of the year. This is specific to me and my blog but anyone is welcome to vote and reblog.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Five years after U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell aggressively pushed a $1.9 trillion tax cut package that disproportionately benefited corporations and the wealthiest Americans, progressives on Wednesday were uninterested in his complaints about President Joe Biden's cancellation of some student debt for working Americans.

"You should sit this one out," government watchdog Public Citizen suggested after McConnell (R-Ky.) lamented the cancellation plan as a "slap in the face" to borrowers who have paid their debt or didn't go to college.

McConnell warned that by canceling $10,000 in student debt for borrowers who earn $125,000 or less per year, and an additional $10,000 for people who received Pell Grants, the White House is "taking money and purchasing power away from working families and redistributing it to their favored friends."

Political observers noted on Wednesday that Biden's plan is likely to greatly increase purchasing power for families who have been making monthly student loan payments. In addition to wiping out monthly payments for millions of people who carry loan balances of $10,000 or less, the plan includes new rules for income-based repayment plans, ensuring borrowers pay no more than 5% of their discretionary income rather than 10%.

"How dare we try to make life better for the next generation," tweeted Bryan Toporek of Bleacher Report in response to complaints from McConnell and other right-wing critics. "The horror."

Political columnist Liz Dye compared McConnell's comments to hypothetical claims that new gender discrimination laws are "a slap in the face" to anyone who has been sexually harassed in the past.

"Sounds stupid, no?" she tweeted.

Martina Jackson, a Democratic state House candidate in McConnell's home state of Kentucky, replied to the Republican leader's comments on Twitter, telling him, "I have paid student debt."

"It's not a slap in the face," Jackson said. "It's a step in the right direction. We shouldn't be going [into] debt for getting an education."

[uninterruptedafricans]

[fakesocialist]

Every single day our country regresses and today has got to be the most blatant way of showing us. These idiots running this country do fucked up shit and act surprised when they get fucked up results and we always have to clean it up.

Now we’re going to hear “go to the ballots!” over and over as if, no one shows up when will these people actually do their jobs?

At a time where families can’t afford food, gas to get to work, rent, or baby formula how are they overturning Roe v. Wade.

And they keeps giving everyone Hillary as if the people haven’t been saying anyone but her and then complaining when no one votes for her…this shit can’t be changed with fucking votes at all.

[garbagereceptacle]

I GOT DELETED.

A little argument over whether or not Genshin Impact shamelessly copies off Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom I guess was the final breaking point. I think the deletion/block? off Discord only really serves as a reminder that my friendship isn't really a net positive to people. I can't say this is the first time it's happened and as someone who once cried over being called a bad person, you would think I have some urge to prove otherwise.

I can't honestly tell you what drives me, and if I were brave enough to propose a nihilistic theory as to what, I would probably say hedonism and selfishness, but the truth is I can't really discuss this with anyone without any sort of negative feedback. And that isn't even a good theory because those traits just seem like symptoms to a much deeper problem. I think even admitting that to anyone would put them on alert as to how I could potentially hurt them.

Maybe I just use people as outlets for my own thoughts and entertainment and I don't care about them at all. In retrospect, it seems like a no-brainer from the outside looking in, but messing around with his girlfriend is not something you do to someone you consider your childhood best friend. And even though he forgave me quickly then, I can't help but ask if I even deserve it and if things like that make it easier to just forget about me.

I worry about the people I talk to now. Or maybe, I just worry about losing them and confirming what I already think about myself - that I deserve to be alone. Whether I bother them too much, weigh them down with too much negativity, burden them with my problems and rants. What are they getting out of talking to me really and is it truly worth it for them? I worry that people are better off and happier without me. If we're being honest, I 100% believe they are. Sometimes it feels like my thoughts and words just cast a shadow over their otherwise relatively unproblematic existence.

Do I deserve to be with anyone? I wonder if I'm hurting my girlfriend's one shot at a fulfilling life by being with me. Because I know I'm not personally fulfilled so much so that I have the urge to write a blog post to nobody about everything going on in my head. Does she deserve someone who isn't constantly questioning who they are and what their value is? Sometimes I wonder if I'm better off alone so I can't hurt anyone. Sometimes I think if this were to fall through, I probably wouldn't start a relationship with anyone again. I think life might just be easier when you leave your self-destructive tendencies to yourself. At least then, there is no one there to hammer the point home.

I wonder what I would have written about today if I hadn't found out he unadded me an hour ago.

[corporatehousing1]

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[arthropooda]

As legal fights raise concerns about the future accessibility of the abortion medication mifepristone, reproductive rights supporters on Saturday rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court and in cities across the country.

The demonstrations came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked a recent ruling by Texas-based federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who struck down the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 2000 approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs often taken in tandem for abortions.

However, the high court's decision last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which reversed Roe v. Wade and overturned a half-century of abortion rights, is fueling fears of what the future holds, as Republican-controlled states across the country continue passing legislation to further limit the choices of pregnant people.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“E. R. Jackson Gives Opinion of Report On the Penitentiary,” Kingston Whig-Standard. February 8, 1933. Page 1. ---- OTTAWA, Feb. 8 — “Gen. D. M. Ormond (Superintendent of Penitentiaries) is, like anyone else, entitled to his own opinion, but anyone reading his report with knowledge of prison work will not pay much attention to it.” 

So stated E. R. Jackson, retired last month as Inspector of the Penitentiaries Branch, when speaking today of the report of Gen. Ormond tabled in the House of Commons on Monday by Hon. Hugh Guthrie, Minister of Justice. The report dealt with the riots last fall at Kingston Penitentiary. 

“It is a known fact," Mr. Jackson said “with men acquainted with prison work, that if you start giving favors or granting exceptional requests to inmates they will be nice inmates and obey the regulations, so long as you can hand out the favors.

"The prisons of this country are second to none. Proof of the pudding is that under Gen. St. Pierre Hughes (former Superintendent of Penitentiaries) the prisoners are kept quiet, irrespective of what Gen. Ormond who has been in office since August 1 only, may say the proof is there. 

At the time Gen. Ormond made his report. he had only visited three prisons (Kingston. St. Vincent de Paul, Que., and Dorchester, N.B.) and there has been a riot in everyone of these prisons." 

Jackson was retired on January 14 last. He was formerly connected with the Collins Bay prison near Kingston and was returned to Ottawa headquarters a year before.

[minnesotafollower]

Congress Fails To Adopt Important Immigration Legislation

Congress Fails To Adopt Important Immigration Legislation

Previous posts documented Congress’ earlier failure this Session to adopt (a) the Afghan Adjustment Act to improve the legal status of Afghan evacuees in the U.S. and (b) important bipartisan immigration reform, one of which was offered by Senators Kyrsten Sinema (ex-Democrat & now Independent) and Thom Tillis (Rep., NC) that would have addressed the legal fate of so-called Dreamers and provided…

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Justice Stephen Breyer has notified the White House that his retirement will be effective Thursday, June 30, at noon ET.

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Breyer said it had been his "great honor" to participate as a Judge in the "effort to maintain our Constitution and the Rule of Law."

He said that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is prepared to "take the prescribed oaths" to begin her service as the 116th member of the court.

The fact that the court will issue final opinions and orders on the same day reflects a more expedited timeline than past terms. It suggests that the justices -- who have been subject to death threats since the release of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade are eager for the momentous and divisive term to end as soon as possible.

There are two big cases awaiting resolution concerning the environment and immigration.

Breyer, who was appointed to the court in 1994 by then-President Bill Clinton, announced his retirement plans in January. The highly anticipated decision was met with a collective sigh of relief by Democrats, who feared the possibility of losing the seat to a future Republican President should the 83-year-old jurist ignore an intense pressure campaign from the left, which urged him to leave the court while Biden had a clear path to replace him.

A consistent liberal vote on the Supreme Court with an unflappable belief in the US system of government and a pragmatic view of the law, Breyer has sought to focus the law on how it could work for the average citizen. He was no firebrand and was quick to say that the Supreme Court couldn't solve all of society's problems. He often stressed that the court shouldn't be seen as part of the political branches but recognized that certain opinions could be unpopular.

In his later years on the court, he was best known for a dissent he wrote in 2015 in a case concerning execution by lethal injection. He took the opportunity to write separately and suggest to the court that it take up the constitutionality of the death penalty.

In the opinion, Breyer wrote that after spending many years on the court reviewing countless death penalty cases, he had come to question whether innocent people had been executed. He also feared that the penalty was being applied arbitrarily across the country. He noted that, in some cases, death row inmates could spend years -- sometimes in solitary confinement -- waiting for their executions.

Jackson, Breyer's replacement, was confirmed by the Senate in April by a vote of 53-47, with three Republicans joining Democrats to vote in favor. Though her addition to the bench doesn't change the ideological balance of the court, Jackson will be the first Black woman to serve on the highest court in the nation.

[reportwire]

Supreme Court rearranges its seating chart as Jackson takes the bench | CNN Politics

Supreme Court rearranges its seating chart as Jackson takes the bench | CNN Politics

Washington CNN  —  Tradition is a long-held value at the US Supreme Court, where the nine justices’ adherence to a myriad of historic rules makes the inner workings of America’s highest court reliably consistent even as its decisions sometimes send shock waves through the country. Some of those treasured rules will soon be on display as the court’s newest member, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson,…

[enberlight]

Good news if you have a low income and a high internet bill: The Biden Administration is changing that.

The Affordable Connectivity Program will provide plans of at least 100 Megabits per second of speed for no more than $30. An estimated 48 million Americans will qualify.

Twenty internet providers, including national companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, as well as regional companies, such as Hawaiian Telecom and Jackson Energy Authority in Tennessee, have committed to the program.

Update: The program also gives eligible families a $30 monthly benefit they can apply to their bill. It can be one of the $30 plans at the 20 participating providers (bringing the bill to $0!) or used against the bill at 1,000+ other providers.

To see if you qualify, and for full details, go to: