US US Politics General 2 - Discussion of President Trump and other politicians

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Should be a wild four years.

Helpful links for those who need them:

Current members of the House of Representatives
https://www.house.gov/representatives

Current members of the Senate
https://www.senate.gov/senators/

Current members of the US Supreme Court
https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx

Members of the Trump Administration
https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/
 
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Exclusive: Trump's "pro-Hamas" purge could block foreign students from colleges
Axios (archive.ph)
By Marc Caputo
2025-03-27 08:55:07GMT
The Trump administration is discussing plans to try to block certain colleges from having any foreign students if it decides too many are "pro-Hamas," senior Justice and State Department officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The effort — which could include grand jury subpoenas —marks another escalation of Trump's aggressive crackdown on immigration and antisemitism that civil libertarians say stifles campus speech and has led to several lawsuits.

Zoom in: The idea of prohibiting colleges from enrolling any student visa-holders grew out of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's "Catch and Revoke" program, which now is focusing on students who protested against the war in Gaza.
  • A senior State Department official called the demonstrators it's targeting "Hamasniks" — people the government claims have shown support for the terror group.
  • More than 300 foreign students have had their student visas revoked in the three weeks "Catch and Revoke" has been in operation, the official said. There are 1.5 million student visa-holders nationwide.
  • "Everyone is fair game," the official said.
At the heart of the plan is the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which certifies schools to accept student visa-holders. Institutions have been decertified in the past if the government determines they have too many student-visa holders who are using the education system as a ruse to live and work in the U.S., officials say.
  • Now, the Trump administration is threatening to apply that decertification framework to the post-Oct. 7 demonstrations on college campuses.
  • "Every institution that has foreign students ... will go through some sort of review," the official said. "You can have so many bad apples in one place that it leads to decertification of the school ... I don't think we're at that point yet. But it is not an empty threat."
Columbia University and UCLA — both of which had controversial, disruptive pro-Palestinian protests last year — are among the schools mentioned the most often by administration officials.
  • Columbia officials couldn't be reached for comment.
  • "UCLA is committed to eradicating hate," a spokesperson for that university said, pointing to UCLA's new Initiative to Combat Antisemitism.
What they're saying: Critics accuse the administration of trampling free speech and due process rights, and of unfairly conflating support for Palestinian rights with backing Hamas, the terror group that rules Gaza.
  • The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan free-speech group, said the concept of decertifying entire universities based on who is "pro-Hamas" is "a worrying escalation."
  • "Deemed 'pro-Hamas' by whom? This kind of explicitly viewpoint-driven decision-making is ripe for abuse and risks arbitrary enforcement," FIRE legal director Will Creeley told Axios in a statement.
Zoom out: The administration's zero-tolerance immigration enforcement has provoked a spate of lawsuits, some of which are likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • That's what the administration wants: to give the high court several opportunities to expand the executive branch's power to deport a noncitizen with little judicial review.
  • A judge Tuesday temporarily blocked federal agents from detaining Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. Her lawsuit argues that immigration enforcement can't "be used as a tool to punish noncitizen speakers who express political views disfavored by the current administration."
  • The first major case challenging Rubio's right to revoke a green card was brought this month by Mahmoud Khalil, an organizer of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia.
The big picture: As the political parties realign, the GOP increasingly appeals to non-college voters and has clashed with academics and higher-education experts on cultural issues, including the Gaza war.
  • Student visa holders are a lucrative revenue stream for colleges that can be choked off by the executive branch.
  • "That's one of their biggest cash cows, foreign students. That's a meaningful source of revenue for them," a senior Justice Department official said.
  • "What you're going to see in the not-too-distant future is the universities that we can show that were not doing anything to stop these demonstrations in support of Hamas — or encouraged enrollment by activists — ... we can stop approving student visas for them, and they can no longer admit foreign students," the official said.
Catch up quick: The Trump administration's assault on colleges and that had significant pro-Palestine, anti-Israel or antisemitic activism spans both coasts.
  • Last week, to escape losing $400 million in federal money, Columbia caved to administration demands to combat antisemitism and limit protests.
  • On March 5, the DOJ's new antisemitism task force launched a civil rights investigation into the University of California system.
  • On March 10, the Education Department sent letters to 60 universities warning them of possible civil rights enforcement actions concerning antisemitism.
  • And on March 18, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest siding with Jewish students suing over antisemitic activity during protests at UCLA.
What's next: The DOJ also is monitoring a new federal lawsuit from Columbia students accusing protest organizers of acting as a "propaganda arm" of Hamas.
  • Expect more enforcement actions, the DOJ official said.
  • "The way that this looks ... is a grand jury subpoena goes to a university, a very broad subpoena," the official said, adding that it would include "any information that they know about students who have actively participated in violent protests."
 
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NATO clarifies comments that four missing US soldiers had died during training in Lithuania
Associated Press (archive.ph)
By Vanessa Gera and Lolita C. Baldor
2025-03-27 08:38:29GMT
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — NATO on Wednesday clarified comments that Secretary-General Mark Rutte made earlier in the day, when he suggested that four U.S. soldiers who went missing while training in Lithuania had died, even though the U.S. Army said their fate was not yet confirmed.

“The search is ongoing,” NATO said in a statement posted on X. “We regret any confusion about remarks @SecGenNATO delivered on this today. He was referring to emerging news reports & was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is still unknown.”

The U.S. Army said the Hercules armored vehicle the four U.S. soldiers were in during a training exercise had been found submerged in a body of water. It said recovery efforts were underway by U.S. Army and Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies.

The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting tactical training when they went missing.

Asked Wednesday evening by reporters if he had been briefed about the missing soldiers, President Donald Trump said, “No, I haven’t.”

During a trip to Warsaw, Rutte told reporters that he had received word of the deaths of the four soldiers while he was delivering a lecture, and that his thoughts were with their families and with the United States.

“This is still early news so we do not know the details. This is really terrible news and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones,” Rutte said in Warsaw.

Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported that the four U.S. soldiers and their vehicle were reported missing Tuesday afternoon during an exercise at the General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in Pabradė, a town located less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Belarus.

The Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are all NATO members and have often had chilly ties with Russia, a key ally of Belarus, since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.

Relations soured further over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces.
 
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FreedFenrir said:
Hey, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Using a new account since my main one for KF I'd prefer to keep WELL away from his work but. Well, On Sunday my dad @Gehenna passed away. He had been having heart issues for a while and he took a bad turn over the weekend. he had, rather playfully, mentioned the "Nutters and secret geniuses" in the thread and had fondly mentioned a few of you guys by username. So I thought to tell you all who held a special place in his jaded heart.


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He was a good man, and a good friend. He will be missed.

I didn't know him long - just a few short years - but I can say it was an honor to have known him.
 
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BullfrogBill said:
They just say "yeah Republicans lie" and that's that. There will never be any Democrat or just a left leaning person in general convinced that any Republican in office will not take away Social Security forever. "Never mind the fact that it never happens, it's definitely going to happen this time trust me!" Democrats can't be reasoned with at all, there will never be any common ground between the two parties ever and I wish the US would just split up into two countries and have anyone who identifies as a Democrat forced to move into their side and vice versa for Republicans on their side. One stipulation being that the Democrat side isn't allowed any existing nuclear weapons as they can't be trusted with them and have the Republican side's boarder loaded to the max with security to ensure no leftist lunatics try to come in with their lunatic antics.

Unrealistic? Incredibly, but a guy can dream right?
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I think people are old enough to remember that there was a debate about privatizing social security under the Bush administration and that republicans learned that it is not a popular idea that they should be running on. I don't think it's that strange or uncharitable to assume that many republicans still believe in it. Just like there are a ton of issues that democrats may not explicitly run on, but you know they're not credible on it. Like any individual democrat may not run on wanting to make guns illegal, but we know what the history of the dem party stance on this is.
 
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HTTP Error 404 said:
GOOD.

The left can't even conceptualize this is an option, yet alone that any of us would think it's a benefit, not a problem.
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My god man, you're depriving all these schools of sweet, sweet foreign tuition that is like atleast double what a domestic student would pay! Have you thought about what this would do to these esteemed places of education whose financial holdings are some of the largest in the country?
 
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George Lucas said:
Social Security card is not needed. Proof of citizenship is just birth certificate. An ID is needed to prove that the person presenting the certificate is indeed the person on the certificate. I believe it now needs to be a photo ID. Passport alone is sufficient as it is both an ID and proof of citizenship.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/citizenship-evidence.html
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Unlike previous calls for simply voter ID, which I don't think would prevent anybody from voting, I could see this doing so. Many people wont have their birth certificate to hand and many Americans, I am told, do not have a passport.

In Bongland you don't need proof of citizenship because there is an electoral role and you wont (shouldn't) be on the polling station's list if you're not entitled to vote. So all you need is proof of ID so they can tick you off on their list. I presume in the USA they either don't have lists at polling stations or the idea is that you can go to any polling station rather than your local one?
 
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Overly Serious said:
Unlike previous calls for simply voter ID, which I don't think would prevent anybody from voting, I could see this doing so. Many people wont have their birth certificate to hand and many Americans, I am told, do not have a passport.

In Bongland you don't need proof of citizenship because there is an electoral role and you wont (shouldn't) be on the polling station's list if you're not entitled to vote. So all you need is proof of ID so they can tick you off on their list. I presume in the USA they either don't have lists at polling stations or the idea is that you can go to any polling station rather than your local one?
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Where I live, you have to vote at your polling station if you don’t go to the early voting place beforehand. Also, if you move, you have to update your voter registration to match and be assigned to the one for where you live
 
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Top MS-13 leader arrested in Virginia
FOX News (archive.ph)
By Anders Hagstrom
2025-03-27 07:26:16GMT
U.S. authorities have captured the MS-13 top leader for the U.S. East Coast, the FBI announced on Thursday.

Officials captured the 24-year-old suspect in Woodbridge, Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C.

Authorities have yet to release the suspect's name, but they say he is one of the top three leaders of the MS-13 gang in the U.S.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel monitored the arrest as it took place Thursday morning.

The operation included the FBI joined by the Prince William County Police Department, ATF, ICE, and the Virginia State Police.

This is a developing story. Check back soon for updates.
 
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Overly Serious said:
Unlike previous calls for simply voter ID, which I don't think would prevent anybody from voting, I could see this doing so. Many people wont have their birth certificate to hand and many Americans, I am told, do not have a passport.
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Sounds based. Too many retards who don't deserve voting rights running around.
 
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marvlouslie said:

Imagine using the death of your relative to grandstand and moralize to take away the rights of others. These people are literally so fucking desperate to be the next MLK, and it's quite pathetic.
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They need to have a J Edgar Hoover in office that’s extensively cataloguing their actions and running all sorts of black flag operations to discredit them. They also need clandestine Communist Party backing, and the ability to cheat on their spouses seemingly in private. Oh and they’re also missing the most important part of all: competence and fantastic oration ability, coupled with knowledge of KJV scripture.

Dr King was many things, but the modern leftists won’t ever be him.
 
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