Hard Pass

Republicans in the South Carolina House cast aside Democratic suggestions and objections Tuesday as they worked toward a key vote on a congressional redistricting plan that could give the GOP a shot at winning an additional seat in the November midterm elections.

The redistricting plan, urged on by President Donald Trump, would reshape the state’s only Democratic-held U.S. House district to Republicans’ advantage as part of a broader national effort to retain the party’s slim House majority in the midterms.

To buy time for the newly proposed map to be implemented, the South Carolina legislation would remove U.S. House races from the state’s June 9 primaries and instead set a special primary election in August to select candidates for the state’s seven seats. Some absentee and overseas military votes that already have been cast for Congress would be tossed out.

Democrats objected repeatedly during Tuesday’s debate. And Republicans repeatedly rejected their amendments.

“What you all are doing is wrong,” said Democratic state Rep. JA Moore, adding: “You can justify it, rationalize it, but it’s wrong.”

Other Southern states have pursued a similar approach as they race to redraw U.S. House districts following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a majority-Black district in Louisiana as an illegal racial gerrymander and significantly weakened Voting Rights Act protections for minority districts.

Vice President JD Vance’s decision to extend his fight against Medicaid fraud beyond Democratic states to his red home state of Ohio has set off a scramble among the state’s Republicans — including his close ally Vivek Ramaswamy, the party’s nominee for governor.

A day before Ramaswamy won the state’s May 5 primary, Vance posted to X that he was directing the anti-fraud task force he leads for President Donald Trump to turn its sights on the Buckeye State. The decision came the same day a Daily Wire investigation revealed rampant apparent abuses within Ohio’s Medicaid-funded home health program.

Within days, U.S. House Republicans created a new Task Force on Defending constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses. They declared the fraud allegations in Ohio their first target.

It was a notable pivot, given that Vance’s highest-profile sanctions so far have been targeted at blue states, including Minnesota, California and Maine. He sought initially to tamp down criticism that the anti-fraud effort was partisan — noting some Republican states, including Florida, had been among those cited — but later specifically called out Democrats as the ones who were enabling Medicaid scammers.

The mixed messaging has muddied the waters for Ramaswamy — who seized the opportunity on Tuesday to declare the fight against Medicaid fraud his “absolute top priority.” His plan to reduce healthcare costs and “crush” Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse includes renegotiating Ohio’s deal with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to improve the percentage it receives in fraud-fighting incentives and to streamline the program’s bureaucracy.

Modeled after a waiver Tennessee negotiated during the first Trump administration, the new arrangement would save $3.1 billion that could be pumped back into healthcare savings.

I'm running a Ubuntu server on my old laptop with an external HDD connected to it. The external HDD is powered independently from the laptop, as it is plugged into the wall.

During a power outage, my laptop remains operational due to its battery, but the HDD shuts down. When power is restored, my laptop does not automatically remount the HDD, and I have to reboot the system manually to access it.

Does anyone know how I can resolve this issue?

Edit: Not sure if this added context changes anything, but this is the HDD I'm using. It's a 3.5" HDD that gets its power directly from the wall.

Call him the Trader in Chief.

Recent presidents have stayed away from trading stocks in companies whose fortunes they could lift or scuttle with the stroke of a pen, but Donald Trump smashed that precedent in the first quarter of this year with more than 3,600 buy and sell orders, many of them involving companies whose profits have been directly impacted by his decisions as head of the government.

Among the Trump trades in a recent report filed with a federal ethics agency was as much as $6 million in Nvidia, whose advanced chips Trump approved for sale to China last year. His portfolio also scooped up stocks of several U.S. military suppliers impacted by the Iran war, including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman.

“If he were defense secretary, he would be committing a crime,” said Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics adviser in the George W. Bush administration and a big critic of congressional trading, too. “Technically he can do this, but it is fundamental breach of trust.”

U.S. law bans federal employees from holding financial assets that could be impacted by their policy work, but there is a carveout for the president.

A spokesperson for the Trump family business said the president’s portfolio is handled by third parties that have “sole and exclusive” authority to make investment decisions.

“Neither President Trump, his family, nor The Trump Organization plays any role in selecting, directing, or approving specific investments,” spokesperson Kimberly Benza said in a statement. “They receive no advance notice of trading activity and provide no input regarding investment decisions or portfolio management.

JOIN THE DIGITAL ACTION SQUAD TO RECEIVE WEEKLY MISSIONS DURING OUR MONTH OF ACTION: https://www.dogwoodbc.ca/petitions/te...

Are you struggling to make sense of Canada’s stance on the war in the Middle East? Worried about higher energy prices? Frustrated by our leaders abandoning climate action? Looking for effective ways to take action?

So are we. That’s why Molly and Kai are hosting a campaign update and Q&A on March 10 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

Together with allies, Dogwood is kicking off a month of action to stop our government from using this war to subsidize more fossil fuel infrastructure – and pull us closer to the U.S.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Why are oil and gas boosters in Canada so excited about the war?
What’s the latest on the U.S.-owned Ksi Lisims LNG proposal?
Why is Ottawa considering huge subsidies for American billionaires?
What can we do to save those tax dollars for the things we really need?

If we have time, we’ll get into some of the shocking links between the Ksi Lisims LNG investors and Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the Americans’ dark vision for Gaza and the Middle East.

The LNG industry is key to Donald Trump’s plan for global military and economic dominance. That’s just one reason it’s so important to stop U.S.-controlled pipelines in Canada.

Not a meme, am still gonna post this here since this is a life and death situation and this is the most active sub in dbzer0.

https://action.aclu.org/petition/tony-carruthers-death-penalty

I've been a little annoyed about some progressives in Canada that are opposed to Carney's attempt to beef up the military. We can disagree with details, but I think it's a reasonable response to the weird times we live in.

https://open.substack.com/pub/billhulet/p/defense-is-not-militarism?r=4ot1q2&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Plex has announced a massive price increase on the service's Lifetime Plex Pass. On July 1, the lifetime subscription option will go from $249.99 to $749.99, an increase of 200%. The price hike will only apply to new subscribers, with no changes to monthly or annual subscription pricing.

Plex has announced a massive price increase on the service's Lifetime Plex Pass. On July 1, the lifetime subscription option will go from $249.99 to $749.99, an increase of 200%. The price hike will only apply to new subscribers, with no changes to monthly or annual subscription pricing.

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/65943659

A federal judge in New York has banned US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting immigrants in or around three federal courthouses in lower Manhattan, where vigorous confrontations have played out since the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency.

Under an order issued on Monday by P Kevin Castel, a US district judge, federal agents are no longer allowed to make arrests of immigrants except under exceptional circumstances at the sites where hearings are held before immigration judges.

Here are some ideas for mutual aid

The justice department quietly added a provision barring the IRS from auditing Donald Trump’s tax returns on Tuesday, amending a widely criticized agreement that creates a secretive and loosely controlled $1.776bn fund to compensate allies of the president.

The addendum, signed by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, says the government is “forever barred” and “precluded” from examining the tax returns of Trump, his family, company and “related companies”. The agreement applies to anything filed before the agreement was reached. It was posted on the justice department website on Tuesday morning, a day after the department announced creation of the fund.