It’s rare that I find myself praising Republican lawmakers. The party as a whole is staunchly opposed to a lot of my core values. A woman’s right to choose, LGBT rights and protections, access to affordable healthcare, and the environment itself are all under attack by a party much more concerned with lining their pockets than “Making America Great Again”. While “Obamacare” may have had its issues, the American Healthcare Act is regressive, dangerous, and benefits only high-earners. It’s not surprising that the GOP came up with this sort of legislation, but I was pleasantly surprised that a group of representatives in the House Freedom Caucus will be banding together to vote against the bill.
It’s pretty much expected that the entirety of Democract representatives will oppose the bill, but that’s not enough to block it in a House that’s controlled pretty heavily by the GOP. A total of 22 “no” votes from Republicans would be needed to block the bill, and apparently the House Freedom Caucus has 25. Even if a few of them go back on their intentions or we get some unfortunate surprises from lawmakers we were sure would vote yes, there’s a 3 vote buffer that gives us a decent chance of blocking this act.
Politico reports that “Despite the Freedom Caucus’ threat, the White House was optimistic that Trump would flip enough holdouts in the final hours of negotiation to send the bill to the Senate, where it also faces an uncertain fate. By early Wednesday afternoon, the White House claimed some successes, as Reps. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania and Steve King of Iowa decided to support the bill after flirting with a “no” vote.”
Trump has a reputation as a “closer” and since he’s trying to run a country like a business I imagine he’s going to push pretty hard to get a “yes” in the House. Despite Trump’s promises to compromise, there have been no changes to the bill that the House is voting on which leaves many opponents pretty pessimistic. Trump may have to make some concessions and quickly if he wants his Act to move onto the Senate.
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, is traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with Republican lawmakers who will probably lead committees that regulate the tech sector.
Republican representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Darrel Issa of California, and Cathy McMorris Rogers of Washington are among those with whom Cook has booked meetings.
The meetings were probably planned several weeks, if not months, beforehand. Top conservatives have criticized Apple since the beginning, and many of them have joined with Twitter CEO Elon Musk in their recent dispute with Apple.
Jordan has publicly expressed his support for Elon Musk, as Bloomberg notes.
When the GOP wins over the House in 2023, Jordan is also set to serve as chair of the House Judiciary Committee. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s chairman is most likely to be McMorris Rodgers.
They both will play a key role in developing the GOP’s technology policy agenda for 2023.
What is particularly on the agenda is unclear. Even when he is not called to testify about big tech, Cook travels to Washington, DC, on several occasions each year.
The goal is to make sure marginalized people are considered in environmental decisions.
According to Reuters, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a new office to assist underserved communities in coping with the additional responsibilities of pollution and climate change. 200 EPA workers from the Washington headquarters and 10 regional bureaus will work in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights.
“The establishment of a new office dedicated to advancing environmental justice and civil rights at EPA will ensure the lived experiences of underserved communities are central to our decision-making while supporting community-driven solutions,” remarked Kamala Harris, vice president of the US.
As part of a $60 billion investment in environmental justice, one of the main responsibilities of the new office will be to supervise the distribution of $3 billion in grants for environmental justice that were made possible by the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, it will ensure that other EPA initiatives adhere to President Biden’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to ensure that 40% of certain government spending go to underserved communities. Finally, it will assist localities in obtaining funds, upholding human rights legislation, and resolving environmental disputes.
The opening of the new office took place in Warren County, North Carolina, the scene of demonstrations against the disposal of toxic waste there in 1982. While the 22-acre dump was not stopped as a result of the civil disobedience actions and arrests that followed, the current environmental justice movement was born. Participants remembered the protests’ 40th anniversary last week.
The competition between Pewdiepie and T-Series has been going on for quite a while. I say this mostly because if Pewdiepie was in the middle of a smear campaign, I would certainly believe that it was all a ploy by T-Series in order to make him lose popularity. However, it seems like T-Series doesn’t have to do much as Pewdiepie is no stranger to getting himself into trouble.
So, what did Pewdiepie do this time? Well, in his most recent edition of “Pew News,” a semi-satirical series where Pewds offers his own take on news events or YouTube discussions, he dedicates the last portion of the video to shouting out smaller YouTube creators he enjoys watching. One of those creators is E;R (otherwise known as “EsemicolonR”), an essayist who often includes anti-Semitic, sexist, homophobic, and cruel language in his videos.
At least that’s what TheVerge and so many outlets/other YouTubers are saying. I took a look at E;R’s content and saw mostly meme videos about political stuff. The guy even made a tribute to Tay AI. You can see a whole documentary made about this by Internet Historian down below:
However, the subjects tackled in the videos can be a bit more problematic because of the current political climate with Pewdiepie. As such, we can assume that a lot of people don’t find this very funny and even reprehensible. Especially when the US is caught in the middle of tension thanks to laws like FOSTA, which are an indirect cause of Tumblr’s collapse right now.
Ever since Pewdiepie has made the shoutout, the channel has gained over 15,000 Subscribers. Of course, this also means that the ire of the people who are against him has risen even more. As such, we’re in this situation where Pewdiepie has gotten himself into trouble yet again despite knowing that the current situation is tense. I guess some people will never learn.
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