Is Vivek Ramaswamy the first AI candidate? There’s something alarmingly unnatural about him. No real person talks like that. That, and ‘What a buncha morans’ are my only thoughts about last night’s shit-show.
The Looming Shutdown. Essential: House staffers working on Biden impeachment. Non-essential: FEMA disaster relief:
House Oversight Chairman James Comer said a potential shutdown, now just days away, will have no impact on his staff and plans to keep issuing subpoenas, telling CNN on Tuesday, “We’re going to keep going.”
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said his staff has been deemed essential and will continue with the steady stream of interviews his panel has lined up, including with top officials at the Department of Justice.
Over the past month, FEMA has paused at least $555 million for long-term recovery projects in Florida, including those related to Hurricane Ian last year. It has held back $101 million from Louisiana and another $74 million in California, according to federal records, which reflect delays through Sept. 18.
The agency similarly has delayed more than $200 million intended to respond to Hurricane Fiona last September and other past disasters in Puerto Rico, according to budget records. Much of the stalled federal money was supposed to reimburse the territory for the cost of repairing ports, fixing schools and bolstering infrastructure against future disasters — some dating back to Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 cyclone that unleashed vast devastation on the island six years ago.
FEMA officials said the payments should resume once Congress approves a deal to fund the government. Without congressional action, the government will shut down at midnight Sunday, Oct. 1, when the current fiscal year ends and federal appropriations run out.
Insanity. You’ve got ten (or so) nutjobs holding the country hostage. I think the Rethugs have already lost the House in 2024.
Cali Fast-Food Workers Win $20 Minimum Wage And Other Protections:
The move is a hard-fought win for the labor movement in the state and is expected to be signed into law – called the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act – by Gavin Newsom, the California governor, later on Thursday.
The new legislation will create a fast food industry council composed of worker representatives, state regulators and franchises.
The new council applies to fast-food chains with over 60 locations under a common brand, with the council submitting any standard approved by a council vote to the California Labor Commission for a rule-making process.
The bill creating the body will also raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers in California to $20 an hour on 1 April 2024, with the council able to set annual wage increases beginning in 2025.
One of this year’s key themes is ‘Workers Fight Back’. Let’s extend this theme for quite awhile longer.
Did anybody else see that bizarre ad claiming that a Biden ban on menthol cigarettes will benefit Mexican drug cartels? With two actors dressed like, I don’t know, border patrol agents? I can’t find it online yet, but I’ll keep looking. Nice to know that Big Tobacco can still use dark money to hook mostly Black smokers on those cancer sticks.
Time for my post-columnal smoke.
What do you want to talk about?