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Friday, March 14, 2025

'Democrats target Republican districts with town hall campaign against Trump cuts'

Democratic committees are set to host town halls across the country to target vulnerable House Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The effort, which has been dubbed “People’s Town Halls,” was launched Friday by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and the Association of State Democratic Committees (ASDC).

The town halls will target Republican Reps. Juan Ciscomani in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, Gabe Evans in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, Anna Paulina Luna in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, Zach Nunn in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, John James in Michigan’s Nebraska’s 10th Congressional District, Ann Wagner in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, and Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District.

DNC Chair Ken Martin accused House Republicans of selling out voters “by backing the Trump-Musk agenda.”

“Now they’re terrified to be in the same room as the people who sent them to Washington,” Martin said. “When 217 House Republicans voted for Donald Trump’s billionaire tax handout, each one agreed to destroy Medicaid, keep food from kids and families in need, and target the programs that take care of our veterans – all in service of massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations.”

The effort comes after National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) advised House Republicans to avoid in-person town halls in their districts.

That guidance came after a number of Republicans were met with angry attendees at district town halls, which led to videos of these confrontations going viral. Republicans have blamed many of those confrontations on Democratic activists and agitators.

Several House Democrats told reporters at their annual retreat in Leesburg, Va., this week that they are heading to Republican districts to conduct town halls.

“We’re filling a void that’s left open by our Republican colleagues who are too scared to show up to town halls in their own districts because they’re doing things that are not popular,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) told reporters.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/democrats-set-to-host-town-halls-targeting-vulnerable-house-republicans/

Stuck NASA astronauts one step closer to home after SpaceX crew-swap launch

NASA and SpaceX on Friday launched a long-awaited crew to the International Space Station that opens the door to bringing home U.S. astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the orbital lab for nine months.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:03 p.m. ET (2303 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying four astronauts who will replace Wilmore and Williams, both of whom are veteran NASA astronauts and retired U.S. Navy test pilots and were the first to fly Boeing's faulty Starliner capsule to the ISS in June.

Otherwise a routine crew rotation flight, Friday's Crew-10 mission is a long-awaited first step to bring the astronaut duo back to Earth - part of a plan set by NASA last year that more recently has been given greater urgency by President Donald Trump.

The Crew-10 launch occurred as Wilmore and Williams were asleep in their daily schedule on the station, Dina Contellam deputy manager of NASA's ISS program, told reporters after the launch.

After the Crew-10 astronauts' ISS arrival on Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET, Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to depart on Wednesday as early as 4 a.m. ET (0800 GMT) on Sunday, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov flew to the ISS in September on a Crew Dragon craft with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.

The Crew-10 crew, which will stay on the station for roughly six months, includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

PLANNING FOR THE UNEXPECTED

Minutes after reaching orbit, McClain, part of NASA's astronaut corps since 2013, introduced the mission's microgravity indicator - per tradition in American spaceflight to signal the crew safely reached space - as a plush origami crane, "the international symbol for peace, hope and healing."

"It is far easier to be enemies than it is to be friends, it's easier to break partnerships and relationships than it is to build them," McClain, the Crew-10 mission commander, said from the Crew Dragon capsule, her communications live-streamed by NASA.

"Spaceflight is hard, and success depends on leaders of character who choose a harder right over the easier wrong, and who build programs, partnerships and relationships. We explore for the benefit of all," she said.

The mission became entangled in politics as Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, who is also SpaceX's CEO, urged a quicker Crew-10 launch and claimed, without evidence, that former President Joe Biden had abandoned Wilmore and Williams on the station for political reasons.

"We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short," Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this month, adding that he did not believe NASA's decision to keep them on the ISS until Crew-10's arrival had been affected by politics.

"That's what your nation's human spaceflight program's all about," he said, "planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that."

The Crew-10 mission is part of a normal crew rotation happening at an unusual time for NASA's ISS operations - rather than a dedicated mission to retrieve Wilmore and Williams, who will return to Earth as late additions to NASA's Crew-9 crew.

Musk says SpaceX had offered a dedicated Dragon mission for the pair last year as NASA mulled ways to bring the two back to Earth.

But NASA officials have said the two astronauts have had to remain on the ISS to maintain adequate staffing levels, and that it did not have the budget or the operational need to send a dedicated rescue spacecraft.

Having seen their mission turn into a normal NASA rotation to the ISS, Wilmore and Williams have been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the other five astronauts.

Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was looking forward to returning home to see her two dogs and family. "It's been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us," she said.

"UNUSUAL" MISSION PREPARATIONS

Trump and Musk's demand for an earlier return for Wilmore and Williams was an unusual intervention into NASA operations. The agency later brought forward the Crew-10 mission from March 26, swapping a delayed SpaceX capsule for one that would be ready sooner.

The pressure from Musk and Trump has hung over a NASA preparation and safety process that normally follows a well-defined course.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich, said preparing for the mission had been an "unusual flow in many respects."

The agency had to address some "late-breaking" issues, NASA space operations chief Ken Bowersox told reporters, including investigating a fuel leak on a recent SpaceX Falcon 9 launch and deterioration of a coating on some of the Dragon crew capsule's thrusters.

Bowersox said it was hard for NASA to keep up with SpaceX: "We're not quite as agile as they are, but we're working well together."

https://www.aol.com/news/nasa-spacex-try-again-launch-101054901.html

Biden White House gave Trump, Pence phones to FBI in agency’s ‘gotcha’ probe of 2020 election

White House officials under then-President Biden helped the FBI build out its 2020 elections case against Donald Trump by turning over government-issued cellphones belonging to the 45th president and former Vice President Mike Pence, documents show.

The revelation was made in whistleblower disclosures released by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Friday, related to the FBI’s so-called 2022 “Arctic Frost” investigation into Trump, which the lawmakers say was improperly opened by “anti-Trump” former Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault.

“Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” Grassley and Johnson wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, informing them of their findings. “The American people deserve to know the complete extent of the corruption within the DOJ and FBI that led to the investigation into President Trump.

“We are making this information public for purposes of public accountability and to provide specific examples of past behavior at your institutions that must not be repeated,” they added.

It appears that the FBI did not require a warrant when it obtained the Trump and Pence cellphones, which were in the possession of Biden’s White House counsel.

In an email with the subject line “Arctic Frost Update 5 17 2022,” Thibault notifies FBI officials that the bureau has been given the cellphones and is working on search warrants to extract the data.

“On May 4, 2022, CR-15 agents took possession of two phones belonging to former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence,” Thubault wrote. “The phones were entered into evidence and will not be processed until search warrants are obtained.”

“A brief interview with Deputy White House Counsel was conducted on the same date,” he added. “A follow-on letter requesting additional information regarding the phones was sent from the [US Attorney’s Office] to White House Counsel on May 9, 2022.”

A source familiar with the investigation told Fox News that “the Biden White House played right along with the FBI’s ‘gotcha’ scheme against Trump.”

The source added that the Biden’s Office of White House Counsel, which at the time was led by Dana Remus and Jonathan Su, “gave its blessing and accommodation for the FBI to physically obtain Trump and Pence’s phones.”

The senators expressed concern about the staffing and resources that were put into the Trump investigation, which formed the basis for former special counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election interference case against Trump.

An FBI email thread with the subject line, “Interviews on May 10, 2022” lists dozens of FBI employees from offices around the country, as well as employees from the National Archives and Records Administration Office of Inspector General and the United States Postal Inspection Service who “agreed to assist with interviews on May 10, 2022 in support of Arctic Frost.”

“The extent to which individuals on this list volunteered and self-selected to support this investigation is unclear,” the senators wrote.

A subsequent May 25, 2022, FBI email with the subject line “PCU Travel Request,” shows that the team probing Trump requested $16,600 for travel in June 2022 to “conduct more than 40 interviews, serve subpoenas and execute several cellular device search warrants.”

“These emails and documents provide a glimpse into just a portion of the massive taxpayer resources that the FBI spent on the Arctic Frost investigation,” Grassley and Johnson noted.

The senators asked Patel to produce “all records related to the Arctic Frost investigation,” as well as “a true and complete breakdown of the total dollar amount spent on the Arctic Frost investigation before it was officially transferred to Jack Smith in November 2022” by March 27.

The Post has reached out to the FBI for comment.

https://nypost.com/2025/03/14/us-news/biden-white-house-turned-over-trump-pence-government-cellphones-to-fbi-as-part-of-anti-trump-agents-case/

Trump’s Nomination of Hostage Envoy Pulled After Hamas Meeting

President Donald Trump’s administration is withdrawing the nomination of Adam Boehler to be its top envoy for hostage issues, but he will continue to deal with those matters as a special government employee, according to the White House.

The move comes after Boehler provoked anger from Israel for meeting with Hamas over the fate of US captives held by the group.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-14/white-house-pulls-hostage-envoy-s-nomination-after-hamas-meeting

New Post-Assad Syrian Constitution Enshrines Islamic Sharia Law

For decades Syria was ruled by the Assad family and the secular Ba'ath party, which generally allowed for a high degree of religious freedom for non-Muslims like Christians, Druze, and dissident Muslim sects such as the Alawites.

But this quasi-secular public order collapsed literally overnight with the December 8 ouster of Bashar al-Assad, which saw him flee the country for safe-haven in Moscow.

The hardline Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took over Syria, with the backing of external powers like NATO-member Turkey, and likely backing of Western countries such as the United States.

On Wednesday HTS leader and self-declared President Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly Abu Mohammad al-Jolani: his ISIS/AQ name) signed a new declaration of an interim constitution.

A committee of HTS appointees produced it (or at least a partial draft) in a committee, and it clearly makes Islamic or Sharia Law the new law of the land.

The constitution for the first time in Syria's history recognizes Islamic Law as the main source of jurisprudence. Previously the Assad government only recognized Islamic law as a source, or one of many sources.

The Assad family is of course from the Alawite sect, and thus operated in such a way that ensured protections for all non-Sunni religious minorities. But these protections have clearly now been stripped, amid an ongoing massacre targeting mainly Alawites in Syria's coastal regions where thousands have died.

Under Assad, Christians especially lived their faith very publicly - which included parades in the streets in major cities during holidays like Christmas and Easter. The feast day of St. George was also often accompanied by public celebrations in various Christian towns.

But now, Christians are living in fear - and any church festivals have been either canceled altogether or at least greatly subdued. There have lately been reports that in Damascus HTS militants have roamed restaurants and cafes, chastising and abusing Christians for eating and drinking during the Muslim Ramadan fast.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/new-post-assad-syria-constitution-enshrines-islamic-sharia-law

Reality Check: Towns And States Don't Want Green Energy

by Steve Goreham via RealClearEnergy,

Trump Administration actions to scale back renewable energy capture headlines, but citizens are also pushing back. Efforts to deploy wind and solar systems face a rising tide of opposition in towns, counties, and states. Mandates for electric vehicles and electric home appliances are being challenged. The combination of rising local opposition and Trump funding cuts threatens to end the transition to green energy.

The green energy revolution in the United States has run almost unopposed for the last two decades. Driven by the fear of human-caused global warming, federal regulators enacted an expanding array of incentives for renewables in the form of mandates, tax credits, loans, and subsidies. States added incentives to push for the adoption of wind, solar, electric vehicles, heat pumps, green hydrogen, and carbon dioxide (CO2) capture systems.

Twenty-three states have laws or executive orders requiring Net Zero electricity by 2050. Power companies have been forced to comply with state mandates. Since 2000, wind and solar have grown from near zero to about 16% of US power generation in 2024, wind (10.5%) and solar (5.1%).

Twenty-two states have electric vehicle (EV) mandates, requiring all sales of new cars to be EVs by a future date, such as 2035. Tightening CO2 emission standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) force manufacturers to sell an increasing share of EVs. Plug-in EV sales grew from zero two decades ago to 8% last year.

Climate policy advocates want homeowners to switch from natural gas and propane appliances to heat pumps and other electric appliances. In 2019, Berkeley, California became the first city to prohibit natural gas in new residential construction. Cities and counties in seven states now ban gas in new construction, including a statewide ban in New York.

The wave of renewable energy programs promoted and subsidized included electric vehicle charging stations, CO2 pipelines, and green hydrogen production facilities. But it’s becoming clear that many towns, counties, and states no longer support the green energy movement. A rising tide of opposition threatens the deployment of renewables.

Last month, the State House of Arizona passed legislation that would prohibit construction of wind systems on more than 90% of state land. The legislation would force new wind projects to be at least 12 miles from any residential property. The bill is being considered in the Arizona Senate.

Oklahoma is the third largest generator of electricity from wind in the US. But attendees at recent rallies at the state capitol call for bans on new wind and solar projects. Local residents voice economic, environmental, and health concerns about renewable systems.

The opposition to wind and solar has been growing for more than a decade and recently accelerating. In 2009, North Carolina banned new wind projects in 23 counties. Kentucky enacted an effective statewide ban on new wind construction in 2014. Connecticut, Florida, Tennessee, and Vermont have established bans which are effectively statewide.

A 2023 study by USA Today found that the number of counties in the US with wind turbine restrictions or bans rose from two in 2008 to 411 in 2023. The number of blocking counties rose to over 500 in 2024 with Florida’s ban on wind systems offshore and within one mile of the coast. About 16% of US counties now ban or restrict wind systems. More than 100 counties restrict the deployment of solar systems. The number of counties that ban wind or solar is rising faster than counties which are deploying wind or solar for the first time.

Journalist Robert Bryce has developed a Renewable Rejection Database. The database shows a cumulative total of 800 of wind and solar project rejections in the US since 2015. It shows a rising trend in rejections, including an especially large jump in solar rejections in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

There are many reasons for rising opposition to wind and solar projects. Towns are concerned with the aesthetic impact of 600-foot-high turbine towers and acres of solar panels, the loss of farmland to sprawling wind and solar systems, low-frequency noise from wind turbines, and the impact on nearby property values. Retiring systems generate vast quantities of turbine blade and solar panel waste that fill up local landfills or must be shipped to landfills in other states.

Wind and solar require more than 100 times the land compared to coal, gas, or nuclear power generators for the same average electricity output. While traditional power plants are usually located near cities, utility-scale wind and solar systems are spread over wide areas, often on ridge lines and located far from population centers. Therefore, renewables require long transmission lines and two or three times the transmission towers compared to conventional power plants. Residents often oppose the construction of new transmission as well.

Some states have decided to overrule local opposition to wind and solar. A 2023 Illinois state law overruled restrictions or bans on wind and solar established by more than half of state counties. A 2023 Michigan state law also overruled local opposition from more than 20 counties. Local opposition can be bypassed in seven other states.

In 2024, electric vehicle sales grew only 7% in the US. California and ten other states currently mandate that 35% of new car sales must be EVs in the 2026 model year. With slowing consumer adoption of EVs, these goals are impossible for all states except California. At the end of 2024, Virginia cancelled their EV mandate. Look for other states to cancel as well.

As we mentioned, cities and counties in seven states have banned gas appliances in new construction, but in the last five years, 24 states enacted regulations prohibiting city and county bans on gas appliances. Most states want citizens and businesses to be able to choose the home energy that they prefer.

Utilities are rethinking plans for renewable electricity. The artificial intelligence revolution may require Texas, Virginia, and other states to double power generating capacity within the next decade. Wind and solar systems can’t meet this demand. Nuclear plants are being restarted, coal plant closings are being postponed, and more than 200 gas-fired power plants are in planning or under construction.

Carbon dioxide capture and green hydrogen projects are also being challenged. South Dakota just signed a law prohibiting the use of eminent domain to seize land for CO2 pipelines. CO2 capture projects in Louisiana face severe local opposition. And regional green hydrogen hubs are sure to be opposed.

With Trump funding cuts and escalating local opposition to renewables, 2025 may be the beginning of the end of the green energy transition in the United States.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/reality-check-towns-and-states-dont-want-green-energy

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