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Who's running for Nancy Pelosi's House seat? Here are 3 Democrats who could replace her in Congress

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/who-will-replace-nancy-pelosi

Illinois Democratic candidate glitter bombs anti-LGBTQ+ Christian group

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Trump broke the law with this horrible threat — and it will be his doom

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Where is bi former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema now?

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Chi Ossé, Black gay NYC Council member, files for potential challenge to Hakeem Jeffries for Congress

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The Government Shutdown at Day 40: Where are we and how did we get here? – GovTrack.us

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The Government Shutdown at Day 40: Where are we and how did we get here?

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Analysis and Commentary – Legislative Recap – Legislative Preview – The White House – News About GovTrack – Using GovTrack Tips

Nov. 9, 2025 · by Joshua Tauberer

On October 1 funding for many federal government programs expired, and 40 days later Congress still has not reached an agreement on how to proceed. This has never happened before for so long.

What the shutdown means

About half of federal government employees are still working, including federal police like ICE, TSA, and air traffic controllers, the military, and staff deemed essential throughout the government. But those workers won’t get paid until the shutdown ends, and it’s legally dubious that many should be working at all. Payments out of a contingency fund for SNAP, the food assistance program, are only covering part of SNAP’s benefits and recent payments may be clawed back (the Supreme Court also ruled on it). That’s all because the Constitution requires that federal dollars are only spent when a law is enacted to authorize it, and the last laws authorizing all this spending expired on September 30.

What each side wants

To end the shutdown, Republicans must find at least 8 Democrats in the Senate to agree on an “appropriations” bill for either short-term funding (called a “continuing resolution”) or year-long funding.

Republicans proposed to continue Trump-level funding until November 21, which would include the major increase in spending on immigration enforcement, major cuts to foreign aid, student loans, and food and medical benefits for the poor, and workforce reductions throughout much of the federal government that Republicans enacted during the year. The time until November 21 was to be used to negotiate full-year appropriations bills (which should have already been enacted before the fiscal year ended, ideally).

Democrats have said that they would agree to that with 1) an extension to expiring health insurance subsidies for middle-class families and 2) a guarantee that Republicans won’t break the deal in the middle of the fiscal year (again). More on all that below.

Senate Republicans offered to hold a vote on extending the subsidies, but they didn’t offer to vote for it. Democrats didn’t accept the symbolic offer, but negotiations in the Senate continue. House Republicans in any case said they would not negotiate until the shutdown ended. (Democrats didn’t ask for funding for illegal immigrants, contrary to lies from the other side.)

Republicans expected Democrats to concede rather than be blamed in the public eye for the shutdown. Neither happened.

Lights on, lights off in Congress

The shutdown doesn’t prevent Congress from being in session, and since the shutdown began the Senate has been working: The Senate passed a bipartisan full-year defense spending bill, passed bills to end Trump tariffs and reverse Biden-era regulations, confirmed a handful of Trump nominations for federal judges, agency leaders, and military positions, and voted several times on (failed) proposals to end the shutdown. And Senate leaders from both parties have been negotiating an end to the shutdown.

The House of Representatives, on the other hand, has had the lights off. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sent House Republicans home a week before the shutdown began until Democrats accede to the Republican proposal. Rather than actually being in recess, every few days a token representative gavels the chamber in and then a few minutes later gavels it out as if there is nothing to do. Most representatives are not in D.C., nor holding town halls in their districts, or apparently doing any work at all.

With the chamber technically in session, the Constitution would like a word: Johnson has refused to seat a representative elected in September. It’s unprecedented, and it’s to avoid a vote on an issue that would embarrass the President: Seating Rep.-elect Grijalva could trigger a vote on releasing DOJ’s Epstein files. (This is the second time the Speaker has kept the House out of session to avoid the Epstein issue.)

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Government Shutdown at Day 40: Where are we and how did we get here? – GovTrack.us

#AmericansHealth #FederalGovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown #GovTrack #GovTrackUs #HealthSubsidies #HowDidWeGetHere #Trump #USCongress #USHouseOfRepresentatives #USSenate #WhereAreWe

CNN – What Matters – November 10, 2025

Editor’s Note: Below is a re-formatted post from a CNN Newsletter. It will appear online soon. The newsletter is sent first, then it is published online in a later cycle. I’ve posted it here, because of my comments. This 8-member “deal” on the side is a huge mistake. Read more below. –DrWeb

11.10.25 Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here.
Questions? Comments? what.matters@cnn.com by Zachary B. Wolf
CNN What Matters

by Zachary B. Wolf

: Democrats seethe over shutdown deal.
They might be celebrating in a year

The likely end to the longest-ever government shutdown has Democrats turning on each other in searing anger.

The prevailing opinion appears to be frustration that eight senators freelanced a deal with Republicans.

While it does not guarantee the extension of expiring enhanced subsidies for Obamacare health insurance plans, it does guarantee there will be a Senate vote on that subject.

Sen. Tim Kaine, who helped finalize the deal, defended it on CNN Monday. Kaine noted that the White House had pledged to rehire federal workers fired during the lapse in government funding and to bar further reductions in force at least until January 30.

That’s not good enough for many Democrats who were feeling powerful after victories in mostly blue-state elections last week. They wanted to hold out for more guarantees from the White House, even as the nation’s air travel system started to buckle under the strain of air traffic controllers not being paid and people who rely on the government for assistance buying food went without.

There’s no guarantee that House Speaker Mike Johnson will allow a House vote on extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, but Kaine argued that if senators pass it with bipartisan support and Johnson ignores it, the GOP will pay a political price.

“Their midterm election next year would look a lot worse even than the shellacking they got last week in Virginia and elsewhere,” Kaine said.

The expiring enhanced subsidies, according to analysis by KFF, will be felt more in states that voted for Trump in 2024, and could result in millions of people opting not to have health insurance at all.

This shutdown, assuming it ends and is not repeated in January, won’t be top of mind for voters in midterm elections next year, but it’s still worth taking a look at what happens at the ballot box after a shutdown.

DrWeb’s Comment…

“While it does not guarantee the extension of expiring enhanced subsidies for Obamacare health insurance plans, it does guarantee there will be a Senate vote on that subject.” –article quote

I have highlighted in bold a quote from the article. It is embarassing to post the truth for these eight renegades. They got scammed, including Catherine Cortez Masto, one of my Senators I used to support in Nevada.

To believe that quote, is to believe or trust Trump. I don’t.

These 8 should have known better. I don’t believe or trust the Trump Senate. I don’t.

It won’t vote on the subject, or the votes will vote to remove Obamacare and/or the subsidies, surprise surprise.

All the damn signs point to Trump erasing Obamacare (ego thing to do), and replacing it –after many years of asking GOP for any national health plan, they will dump something out and call it National Health Care by Trump.

Watch, wait, Trust me. They are screwed, these 8, we are screwed by the failure to support the Democratic Party (outliers not welcomed). All those closed days –accomplished NOTHING. Because of these 8 fools. –DrWeb

#americans #cnn #democrats #eightSenators #federalGovernmentShutdown #governmentShutdown #healthCare #newsletter #republicans #shutdownDeal #subsidiesInJeopardy #timKaine #trump #uSHouseOfRepresentatives #uSSenate #voters #whatMatters #whiteHousePledges #zacharyBWolf

Was feeling a little cranky about #Democratic #Senators voting to end the #Shutdown. Then read that because they only voted to fund until Jan 30 (when #healthinsurance premium benefits start biting), the bill now has to go to the #USHouseofRepresentatives for reconciliation…

That’s the body Johnson has kept shut down to prevent #Epstein votes and avoid swearing in new reps!

I now think this was well played. Nice bit of trolling.

Also gets Federal employees paid through the holidays.

Nancy Pelosi, retiring from Congress, leaves a record as a champion of LGBTQ+ equality

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/nancy-pelosi-champion-lgbtq-rights

Lesbian Texas state rep running for Congress says she’s ‘running for the people, not the powerful’

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These cowards can still stop Trump — and history will condemn them if they don't

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Mike Johnson, a defender of a dictator, wildly blames Zohran Mamdani for the government shutdown

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Thanks to one man, Trump has successfully mounted a coup

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Illinois Army captain says Dems are ‘rolling over’ on LGBTQ+ rights. He’s running for Congress to change that

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Gay California lawmaker Scott Wiener enters race for Pelosi's U.S. House seat

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If you're a political head counter, this piece by a Daily Kos user is for you.
It's possible that in coming months, the GOP majority could be reduced to 1 in the US House of Representatives.
#USPolitics #USHouseOfRepresentatives #ShrinkingRepublicanMajority

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/21/2349638/-Democrats-might-be-one-vote-away-from-a-House-Majority-soon

US Supreme Court weighs ‘earthquake’ ruling on Voting Rights Act – BBC

Image via WP There were protests outside the court on Wednesday as it heard arguments.

US Supreme Court weighs ‘earthquake’ ruling that could reshape political map

Published: October 15, 2025

By Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent and Kayla Epstein

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a case that could dramatically reshape the electoral politics of the American south.

The court heard a challenge to a central pillar of the Voting Rights Act, which was originally designed to protect the electoral power of black Americans in the face of state-sanctioned discrimination.

Although the session was scheduled for only an hour, it stretched for more than twice as long, with the nine justices peppering lawyers in the case with questions.

Once the legal dust had settled, it appeared possible that a majority of the court was open to a substantial reinterpretation of the landmark civil rights era law.

If the challenge is successful, it could lead to the redrawing of congressional districts across the south that, by some estimates, could flip more than a dozen seats from Democratic to Republican.

Given the current narrow partisan divide in the US House of Representatives, such a ruling has the potential to give President Donald Trump’s party a decisive advantage in retaining their majority in next year’s midterm congressional elections.

According to UCLA law Professor Rick Hansen, it would reverse decades of court precedent and amount to an “earthquake in the American political system”.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: US Supreme Court weighs ‘earthquake’ ruling on Voting Rights Act

#AmericanSouth #BBC #Minorities #OverturnDecadesOfPrecedent #Redistricting #SupremeCourtOfTheUnitedStates #USHouseOfRepresentatives #Voting #VotingRightsAct