US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2146

Bathroom bully bills — legislation that bars transgender individuals from using restrooms that match their gender identities — will form the next front line in the push for equal rights, according to transgender advocates who are readying themselves for the fight ahead.

“We are going to battle over bathrooms,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equality, on Friday.

While spreading awareness about violence against trans people as well as ending employment and housing discrimination will remain critical issues, Keisling said she anticipates that going forward, the struggle over the bathroom laws will be central.

Lawmakers in several U.S. states — including Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota and Nevada — have introduced bills in the last year that would prevent trans students from using the facilities corresponding to their gender identities while at school.

Meanwhile legislators in other states such as Texas proposed laws that would require adults and children to use the bathroom and locker room corresponding to their sex assigned at birth.

None of the laws have passed. “We beat them all,” Keisling said, “this time.”

School districts attempting to create such policies, she said, are violating Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which protects public school students from gender discrimination.

President Barack Obama is poised to push ahead with the nation’s most ambitious environmental regulation in decades — a crackdown on power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions that the administration hopes will put the U.S. in striking distance of achieving a global agreement to combat climate change.

Environmentalists supporting the rule say they plan to be at the White House for a Monday afternoon announcement that they hope will feature the president himself, as part of what’s shaping up to be a major sales pitch both within and outside the administration. Allies including Virginia environmental groups, elected officials and green-minded business groups have also scheduled media calls for 3 p.m. Monday to react to the news.

The White House has not confirmed the timing of the announcement.

The regulation is expected to ease up on a few of the most controversial provisions that the Environmental Protection Agency included in its draft proposals in the past two years. But it will still set up a years-long legal and political battle with congressional Republicans and other opponents, who call it the major weapon in Obama’s “War on Coal,” and it promises to become a major point of contention for the 2016 presidential race.

The regulation also puts a capstone on Obama’s efforts to secure a legacy as the president who made a serious assault on global warming, without waiting for action from Congress — though he will have to depend on his successors to carry it through. States will also play a big role, with six governors so far indicating they won’t comply with EPA’s mandates.

Blazes raging in forests and woodlands across California have taken the life of a firefighter and forced hundreds of people to flee their homes as an army of firefighters continued to battle them from the air and the ground on Saturday, a day after the state's governor declared a state of emergency.

Twenty-three large fires, many sparked by lightning strikes, were burning across Northern California on Saturday, said state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant. Some 8,000 firefighters were attempting to subdue them, something made incredibly difficult by several years of drought that have dried out California.

"The conditions and fire behavior we're seeing at 10 in the morning is typically what we'd see in late afternoon in late August and September," said Nick Schuler, a division chief with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "But because of the dry conditions, because of the drought-stricken vegetation accompanied by the steep terrain and winds, we're seeing fire activity that's abnormal for this time of year."

In the Modoc National Forest, about a hundred miles south of Oregon, David Ruhl, an engine captain from South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest, was killed fighting a fast-moving blaze. He had vanished Thursday while fighting the 800-acre fire and his body wasn't recovered until Friday.

The biggest fire was in the Lower Lake area north of San Francisco where firefighters had to wade through thick smoke and flying embers to turn loose horses, goats and other livestock in rural neighborhoods as their owners fled to safety. The fast-moving fire had burned three homes by Friday and was threatening 450 other structures. Only 5 percent contained, it had spread across 28 square miles and was growing quickly.

On August 02 2015 06:08 Slaughter wrote:
Seems like Hillary peaked way to early and now its all just down hill from now.

On August 02 2015 12:55 Sermokala wrote:
There are examples apon examples of republicans running train on being able to blur the lines between what the difference between a democrat and a socialist. Get a tape of the guy actually calling himself a socialist? Better give up on all those down ballot candidates and just hope you don't give up a super majority. on the flip side the same crowds that are following sanders won't turn out for Hillary in any strong degree if she tries to be anywhere near competitive in an debate.

On August 02 2015 13:02 GreenHorizons wrote:


So is the idea those putting Sanders ahead of the republicans in heads up races just don't know he is a Democratic Socialist?

On August 02 2015 13:19 RenSC2 wrote:

The idea is that the Republicans have not diverted their attention to him yet. One thing the Republicans do extremely well is smear candidates. They keep destroying each other in the primaries and certainly won't hold back against democrats. A surprisingly large portion of people still think Obama was born in Kenya. That he is a secret Muslim who is trying to install Sharia law while selling us out to his Middle Eastern buddies. And of course that he will destroy all their freedoms. Those are actual commonly held beliefs about Obama that have been perpetuated by the Republican party.

Sanders hasn't had to go through that yet in this presidential run-up. Clinton has and she's being viewed unfavorably by a lot of people because of it. The Republicans will be hands off Sanders until after he wins because they're hoping they'll face him and not Clinton. If Sanders actually wins a nomination over Hillary, then he will be the anti-christ who has come to destroy your religion, take away your freedoms, and turn the United States into a socialist hellhole.

They made southern Republicans believe that McCain had a secret black baby... smearing him on a personal level and drumming up bigoted dissent. What do you think they'll do with Sanders?

Calling it the "biggest, most important step we've ever taken to combat climate change," President Obama said his administration would unveil the final version of a proposal aimed at curbing the amount of carbon pollution put out by power plants.

NPR's Scott Horsley reports that the new regulations are actually tougher than the ones unveiled by the Environmental Protection Agency in a draft proposal in June of 2014.

Two big numbers: The regulations require that power plants cut carbon emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. That number was 30 percent in the draft proposal. The rules also demand that 28 percent of a power plant's generating capacity come from renewable sources such as wind and solar. That number was 22 percent in the proposed rule.

As Scott puts it, these new regulations, which the White House calls America's Clean Power Plan, is the centerpiece of the Obama administration's plan to combat climate change.

"The administration has been pushing other big countries — China, India, Brazil — to take similarly aggressive action in advance of an international summit in Paris later this year," Scott reports.

Of course, this new regulation is already controversial and likely faces a drawn-out legal battle.

On August 03 2015 02:33 Sermokala wrote:
More people in Louisiana or something think that Obama is at fault for Katrina then bush.

Biden gaffes way to much to win the presidency he's a good vp though. Republicans are going to dig up all that tape real fast.