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The GOP’s ‘Pro-Life’ Ghouls Are About to Roll Back 50 Years of Women’s Rights

When Greg Abbott signed one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country into Texas law on Wednesday, he commemorated the occasion with a photo-op signing ceremony where seven women beamed in the front row ahead of dozens of grinning men who will never be pregnant celebrating a new law regulating pregnancy. Even if I hadn’t seen it, I could have drawn it from the many photo ops of other governors signing so-called “heartbeat bills” banning abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat (which in many pregnancies can be as early as six weeks, or before many women know that they’re pregnant): A white man old enough to qualify for the Denny’s Senior Discount behind a desk flanked by a few sanctimonious church ladies in turn surrounded by lots of other white men. Ohio, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, it’s the same shit, different state. And the same question runs through my mind: Do these people think pregnancy is easy? Do they think childbirth is no big deal? Do they know
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Biden Wants to Hire 87,000 Additional IRS Agents to Go After Wealthy Tax Dodgers

The Biden administration is proposing hiring 87,000 new workers for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), effectively doubling the agency’s size, as part of a plan to beef up enforcement efforts and find billions of dollars in tax revenues that go uncollected each year. Enforcement efforts would primarily target individuals and corporations with higher incomes and profits, the administration has suggested. The hiring, which would be part of President Joe Biden’s overall $80 billion spending plan to increase enforcement efforts at the IRS, would not happen all at once. Instead, it would be carried out in phases, with a 15 percent growth in employment at the agency per year until that 87,000 hiring benchmark is reached. The move would help recoup (and go beyond) some of the employment losses the agency has seen over the past decade, as the IRS has lost more than 33,000 workers over the past decade. The drop in employment at the agency has resulted in fewer audits, particularly for filers w

Biden: 'Simply wrong' for Trump DOJ to seek journalists' phone records

President Biden Joe BidenTrump slams 'weak' Republicans who don't want to talk about Arizona audit FDA advises against Chinese-made syringes citing safety issues On The Money: Biden tries to navigate bumpy recovery | Jobless claims hit another post-pandemic low | Treasury calls for 15 percent minimum global tax MORE on Friday vowed that his administration would never seize the phone records of journalists after it was disclosed that the Trump administration secretly obtained the records of CNN and Washington Post reporters. Biden, following a press conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, told reporters at the White House it was "absolutely, positively" wrong to seize reporters' communications. "I won’t let that happen," he said during a brief Q&A with journalists after the official press conference ended. ADVERTISEMENT CNN reported Thursday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) informed its Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, that p

U.S. Attorney General Garland weighs release of Trump-era obstruction memo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland faces a Monday deadline to decide whether to appeal a court order criticizing his predecessor William Barr, an early test of his willingness to defend the Justice Department’s acts during Donald Trump’s presidency. FILE PHOTO: Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a hearing on "Domestic Violent Extremism in America." before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 12, 2021. Bill O'Leary/Pool via REUTERS U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson gave the Justice Department until May 24 to appeal a decision she issued earlier this month that faulted Barr for how he publicly summarized Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 report and ordered the release of a related internal memo. A group of U.S. Senate Democrats on May 14 urged Garland not to appeal Jackson’s decision, saying in a letter that Barr’s actions need to be exposed quickly. “To be clear, these misrepresentations

U.S. says Giuliani not above the law, cannot block review of phones

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, then-personal attorney to U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 7, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz U.S. prosecutors urged a federal judge to allow a review of evidence seized from Rudolph Giuliani's phones, saying the former New York City mayor was not above the law and could not block the review because he had been Donald Trump's lawyer. The recommendation came in a Thursday night court filing, three days after Giuliani opposed the government's request for a "special master" to review records seized from 18 electronic devices, including cellphones and computers, taken during April 28 raids on his home and office. Prosecutors have been examining Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine, including whether he violated lobbying laws by acting as an unregistered foreign agent while working for then-U.S. President Trump. Giuliani's lawyers have demanded that prosecutors turn over documents

Poll: 60 percent approve of Biden's job as president

Six in ten voters approve of the job President Biden Joe BidenTrump slams 'weak' Republicans who don't want to talk about Arizona audit FDA advises against Chinese-made syringes citing safety issues On The Money: Biden tries to navigate bumpy recovery | Jobless claims hit another post-pandemic low | Treasury calls for 15 percent minimum global tax MORE is doing in the White House, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds. Sixty percent of registered voters in the May 17-19 survey said they approve of Biden as president, steady from an April 26-28 poll. The survey found Biden's highest support remains on the issue of the coronavirus pandemic while his lowest marks are on the issue of immigration, at 68 percent and 49 percent, respectively. Fifty-nine percent of voters approve of the job Biden is doing on administering the government. Fifty-seven percent of respondents approve of him on the issues of the economy and stimulating jobs while he sees 56 percent support on his handling o

Troops Blast Senator for Claiming US Military Has Been 'Emasculated'

A Texas Republican senator is taking heat after slamming the U.S. military as being "emasculated" in light of a new recruiting ad. "Holy crap," Sen. Ted Cruz said on Twitter. "Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea ..." He shared a TikTok video comparing what appears to be Russian military propaganda, showing hypermasculine soldiers in ground combat training and jumping out of planes, and an animated U.S. Army ad featuring Cpl. Emma Malonelord, a soldier who was raised by two mothers in California, telling her story of advocating for LGBT freedoms and then enlisting in the service. Cruz's comments were met with scorn from many in the military and veteran community. Some bashed him for seeming to attack a female soldier even as the Defense Department faces a pervasive sexual assault crisis and tries to make the military more welcoming to women. "I think it's incredibly disturbing to see a sitting U.S. senator publicly push Ru