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You won't BELIEVE what happened in the Senate!!!!!!!!

(insert very suspicious clickbaity link)

This ONE trick can get you kicked out of the Senate 😱😱

Reading Green Eggs and Ham out loud

Befriending Jeffrey Epstein

Unparliamentary language 🤬🤬

Joining Debra Fischer and Susan Collins' love triangle

Being fooled by the (very hot) Devil 😈😈😈

Watching corn 🌽🌽

#drseuss #thelorax #ilovekids #westvirginia

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The Daily Wire - Your Morning Coffee

The United States Senate held a rather controversial, but largely successful Senate Hearing session this morning regarding the SAFE TECH Act. Senators were seen split directly between party lines, with the Republican-registered witness Bradley A. Smith simultaneously grilled by the Democrats on his reliability as a witness and showing his ardent support for Republican senators during the hearing.

Mr. Smith passionately riled the Republican senators as he questioned them on their beliefs and opinions on the freedom of speech and First Amendment. The Republicans were seen to react strongly to this, particularly with Susan Collins (R-ME) displaying large hand and body gestures such as thumbs-up. The lines of questioning in which the Republicans brought to the witnesses did, however, satisfy their voters significantly  

As of now, exactly 40% of our respondents have identified themselves with the Republicans, 40% with the Democrats and 10% have chosen neither. In Senator Sullivan’s recent political rally, he has noticed significant support in his speech. Senator Heinrich, following the rough interview before, has opted to go on a nation-wide tour to increase his popularity. #ILOVEMANCHIN has gone viral on X for the past few days, with over 700,000 posts made using the tag. 

In the recent Democrat’s Party Rally, Senator Hickenlooper was, interestingly, not present at the event. Senator Baldwin has made a speech in commemoration of the lasting Democrat victory in the Senate, and voters have expressed confidence that the Democrats are set to win the next election. The Republican Party Rally has been delayed due to unexplained reasons.

President Joe Biden has personally commended the efficiency of the United States Senate in his recent press conference, citing this as “evidence towards the unrelenting force of the United States, and the unwavering spirit of the American people”. While he made attempts to further commend the individual Senators, he trailed off in a series of “umms” and “ahhs”, before hurriedly heading off. 

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What kind of Senate is running our country??? They aint even listening to the damn witnesses when they were giving their testimonials... #democratssuck #GOP2024 #MakeAmericaGreatAgain

Written by an American citizen ~2 million likes on X, 20 December

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Reuters

Voters split with upcoming election season; RESTRICT Act passed in historic unanimity

In a recent investigation carried out by AP-NORC, an independent political research group, it has been revealed 30% of Republican voters have indicated strong confidence in their Republican Senators in winning the upcoming election season, whilst 40% of Democrat voters are confident in their party winning the election season. In a historic vote and a show of unity by the Senate, a complete unanimous vote was given to passing the RESTRICT Act. This Act serves to mitigate foreign threats in a move towards national security. 

The rocky Senate hearings from yesterday has sparked great controversy, with TikTokers taking to various platforms in protest. However, the Presidential Office has enacted to put TikTok on hold indefinitely, as Americans await President Joe Biden’s approval towards this Act. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has requested an emergency meeting with their American counterparts, and as such, it awaits to be seen what the President has to say. ByteDance has released a statement declaring this a sign of “American paranoia”. 

The Alaskan citizens, who are represented by Senator Sullivan, have taken to the streets in protest towards what has been pushed in the Senate Floor. Protestors have been seen marching with signs reading “warmonger”, “peace over war” and the like. While riot police have been clashing with said protestors, political theorists claim this is a warning towards the more aggressive stance the Senate chooses to take. In addition, Americans faced delays with multiple social media sites, including that of Meta, X and Instagram, amidst a DDOS attack by an unidentified group of hackers, who have printed the message “Down with Rosen '' across all affected websites. This issue has been fixed last night.  Trends across non-affected sites, such as Reddit, have shown interest towards Senators, such as that of Senator Kennedy, towards their stance on the SAFE TECH Act.

Bloomberg, a major international trading company, has also denounced this action, particularly towards the Democratic Senators. They have officially ended their countless years of collaboration with the Democratic Party, stating that “what has been discussed would greatly affect the international economy, to levels far beyond that the Senators have considered”. Investors from Citadel, a multinational hedge fund, have collectively banded together to write an open letter, citing that “the Republicans are instigating an imminent global financial collapse whilst pushing for their selfish agendas''. However, Republicans have noticeably received greater support in their recent party rally, as conservative voters flock to donate and show their support. In Senator Blumenthal’s recent public debates, he struggled to answer questions from his voters regarding his stance towards China, leading to a slight decrease in support. In Senator Hickenlooper’s meet-and-greet sessions, he declared an overwhelming victory by the Democrats over the Republicans being reflected in the RESTRICT Act, which was responded with cheers by the locals. Finally, in Senator Heinrich’s recent interview with Fox News’ interviewer Jesse Watters, he was questioned as towards the legitimacy of his actions, particularly those of his policy towards China and TikTok. While he gave a strong rebuttal on that, when asked on whether he could comment on the bipartisan dynamics, he struggled to give a concrete response. Mr Watters followed up by asking whether such an act of bipartisanship could be mirrored towards the Democrats’ approval of Republicans as a whole, in which Mr Heinrich requested to cut the interview short.

Regardless, the Senate now moves on to the SAFE TECH Act next, discussing repealing Section 230 as a whole. As the nation awaits the upcoming debate and public hearings, Senators scramble to organise their party.

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Statement by the Center for a New American Society (CNAS)

This morning, our Founder, Michelle Flournoy, was a witness in the Senate Hearing in efforts to drive the Senate towards a better direction in their amendments to the RESTRICT Act. As an organisation that puts American national security as its highest priority, CNAS is highly disappointed in the Senate’s questioning of Ms Flournoy and their severe lack of regard towards the witness’ responses and solutions proposed. 

As Ms Flournoy raised in her testimony, the national security of the United States is at stake and this is a pivotal time in American history. We urge the Senate to work towards actually developing systems for the management of data by social media companies, in the best interests of its citizens.

To make our donations public, we have also received strong backing by both the Republican and Democratic parties. CNAS takes offence against the insinuations made by Senators, and would demand an apology at the closest instance. 

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The New York Times

United States Senate Grills TikTok CEO and Former Under-Secretary of Defense on National Data Security

Earlier this afternoon, the Senate spent gruelling hours questioning TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew on the safety of American users’ data, and its affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Bytedance. Senators were seen to lose order in the Congressional Hearing Room on live television, as Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) centred his questions around Mr Shou’s employment as CEO and its links to Chinese-owned company Bytedance.

Despite having already held a Senate Hearing months ago where many security concerns surrounding TikTok were already addressed, many Senators hit Mr Shou with questions similar to ones already previously answered. Mr Shou was seen to be mildly exasperated as he consistently reiterated how TikTok is a purely American company independent of Bytedance. Focusing on American-based companies like Oracle, Mr Shou maintained a strong stance on the lack of connections and data made available to the Chinese government. However, Senators appeared to lack focus on measures like Project Texas and its progress and instead on personal affiliations, with Maria Cantwell (D-WA) calling Mr Shou a “Bytedance puppet”.

Meanwhile, to Michelle Flournoy, former Under-Secretary of Defense on National Data Security and Founder for the Center for a New American Security, Senators sought advice on improvements to the RESTRICT Act, including the types of restrictions and her thoughts on blanket policies, amongst others. Many Senators, particularly Republicans, affirmed their appreciation towards Ms Flournoy’s contributions towards national security and acknowledged her role in assisting the Senate with the current debates surrounding the RESTRICT Act.

In addition, Ms Flournoy raised a Right to Reply against Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) for “misrepresenting (her) as an idiot, through the manipulation and twisting of my words”, after the Senator suggested that the witnesses had little understanding of the issues. 

Following this major hearing, we have launched a public survey to gauge voter confidence. Due to the content covered, there was a general decrease in voter confidence. In particular, youths have expressed great disapproval for the Senators, claiming that they are “not caught up with the modern day”. 

However, we have also noted the following trends; Senator Bluementhal has received greater approval ratings from liberal voters. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) loses confidence from liberals. Senator Susan Collins  (R-ME) received greater approval ratings from conservatives. Ben Shapiro personally commented on this, stating that the liberals have “gotten Rekt”.

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Good work today, Senators!

Dear Senators,

Thank you for your contributions today. The Senate has made relevant progress towards the legislative agenda, and consequently, the RESTRICT Act, particularly on matters of national security and foreign technology. Debate has been relatively fruitful with numerous concerns and solutions raised being of valid merit, and the Presiding Officers would like to applaud you on that. 

However, the Officers would like to strongly recommend Senators to remind themselves of the Senate mandate, as well as the purpose of the bills they are dealing with. Moreover, it is necessary for Senators to progress more quickly in terms of their discussions and, particularly, in writing amendments, considering the tight timeline.

On that note, the officers would like to remind Senators to refer to Article 11 of the SROP document, and note the proceedings tomorrow which include Cloakrooms and a Senate hearing. Relevant documents to prepare for the hearing are in the drive, with relation to the witnesses who will be present to deliver their testimonies.

We wish you luck in your preparations for the next few days of debate!

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So you have chosen ... the RESTRICT Act!

Dear Senators,

It is truly with foresight that you have come to a consensus and decided to begin debate on the RESTRICT Act, given this new article, just published by Politico, a nonpartisan news agency specialising in politics and policies. 

Senate reignites push for bipartisan bill targeting TikTok

First introduced earlier this year alongside much bipartisan fanfare and endorsement from the White House, the RESTRICT Act, sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) alongside numerous other co-sponsors, has been regaining traction within the Senate. 

The bill seeks to address security concerns regarding information or communications technology that the US deems a "risk" to the nation, which would be identified as originating from "foreign adversaries". The US Department of Commerce is required to identify and actively deter such technology. Despite this broad description, however, the bill is widely interpreted to be targeting TikTok, the social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance. 

Though there has been bipartisan support for the RESTRICT Act, there has also been bipartisan criticism, with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) stating that the bill “needs work”, and with various other existing bills on the table similarly looking to regulate the usage of foreign-owned technologies. Some flaws pointed out include the potential implications that it would bring towards censorship, its possibility of granting unregulated power to the government, as well as its impact on civil liberties. 

Citizens await with bated breath towards how the Senate may act. Will Senators cave to the Chinese demands, turn the United States into a totalitarian state or succeed? The results are to be determined.

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Welcome to the US Senate!

Dear Senators, 

Welcome to the US Senate! We hope that you are all excited to engage in a heated and productive debate surrounding 2 key bills – the SAFE TECH Act and the RESTRICT Act. Given the increasingly polarizing and contentious state of the US political climate, it is more important than ever that the Senate comes together to discuss these contentious bills to hopefully come to amendments to the current bill. As fellow Senators, it is your utmost duty to make legislative decisions that put the American citizens at the forefront, in order to overcome the impending issues - that is, the safety issues posed by Big Tech and national security threats posed by foreign adversaries - regardless of your party affiliations. 

With the upcoming 2024 General Elections, it is crucial that your actions account for the concerns of the general population as part of the government’s mandate. With global events like the not-so-recent Russian-Ukraine Conflict and the more recent Israel-Hamas War, in light of the increasingly unstable international political climate, national security would be an increasing area of concern for many voters. At the same time, many voters would prioritise personal concerns such as individual freedom and economic matters, and these all tie into the fundamental controversies that the two bills address. On one hand, the SAFE TECH Act focuses primarily on the extent to which free speech should be upheld according to the First Amendment, and on the other, the RESTRICT Act pays attention to the actions taken against foreign adversaries which interplay with their economic relations as well. Hence, it is your duty as part of the US Senate to consolidate the various concerns and generate appropriate amendments to the respective bills.

Wishing you all the best for these four days of debate!