Politics, Everyday, All day... morning, noon and night....II

[gaminwench]

O.M.G.
Brilliant!!!

[lucky420]

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Where’s the lie?

[some seeing eye]

Just sayin'

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Monthly Child Tax Credit payments will not be made on January 15.

[Simon of the Playa]

what could go wrong?

[Miura-7]

^Hey! That’s my quote.^

[Popeye]

“True Patriots Refuse to Wear Snow Tires or Chains.” I lifted the following from a patriot fighting these mandates ---
“WE REFUSE TO PUT ON WINTER TIRES OR CHAINS BECAUSE:
+It’s my car, my choice, my FREEDOM.
+Their effectiveness has not been proven, except by studies sponsored by manufacturers. [Am I supposed to believe them?!]
+My neighbor had an accident AFTER putting on winter tires.
+Some drivers are already on their 3rd set which proves they don’t work.
+We don’t know what these tires are made of.
+The tire manufacturers scare us to enrich themselves. Don’t be scared!
+In fact, I read on the internet that the giant tire giants invented snow and spread it at night when you’re asleep.
+Just think, if you have winter tires the government can track you in the snow.
Remember 1776 – Don’t Tread on Me! Educate yourself. Open your eyes. Stop being sheep! Fight the winter tire mandates.”

[Canoe]

“True Patriots Refuse to Wear Snow Tires or Chains.” I lifted the following from a patriot fighting these mandates ---
“WE REFUSE TO PUT ON WINTER TIRES OR CHAINS BECAUSE:
+It’s my car, my choice, my FREEDOM.
+Their effectiveness has not been proven, except by studies sponsored by manufacturers. [Am I supposed to believe them?!]
+My neighbor had an accident AFTER putting on winter tires.
+Some drivers are already on their 3rd set which proves they don’t work.
+We don’t know what these tires are made of.
+The tire manufacturers scare us to enrich themselves. Don’t be scared!
+In fact, I read on the internet that the giant tire giants invented snow and spread it at night when you’re asleep.
+Just think, if you have winter tires the government can track you in the snow.
Remember 1776 – Don’t Tread on Me! Educate yourself. Open your eyes. Stop being sheep! Fight the winter tire mandates.”

I wonder what percentage of the population will now defy and no longer use winter tires or chains...

Back in 1990, I believe it was somewhere around 60 % of the U.S. thought Elvis was still alive and hiding somewhere.

[Simon of the Playa]

As Meijer helped a colleague with her hood, the mob was banging on the doors. Then a window shattered. While they looked down on some of their senior-most colleagues being rushed off the floor, Stephanie Bice, a fellow Republican freshman from Oklahoma, told Meijer that they were witnessing history. Stunned, she suggested that he take a photo. Meijer was already recording video on his iPhone. “Sad, sad, sad fucking history,” he told her.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... ch/620844/

[Simon of the Playa]

believe it or not, by all accounts, this man may have temporarily saved our democracy.

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[Simon of the Playa]

"Bills that once sailed through with bipartisan support, such as government funding or debt limit measures, got next to zero Republican support this year. The ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus has crippled the chamber’s ability to fast-track noncontroversial bills, forcing 30 floor votes in a row at one point last month. A bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's vote later led to death threats for the 13 House Republicans who backed it."

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/0 ... ats-525975

[art walsh]

I've read the voting rights bill - admittingly I skipped some of the legalese paragraphs.. It almost 800 pages long.

Some clear and some hazy items.
You can walk in, no ID, say you are john riley and sign a paper and vote.
You can register the day of voting. No time to check if you are eligible to vote.
Redistricting by commission. Not elected officials.
Organizations that collect donations for political action must reveal who gave $$. Your name is open to anyone - FOI request.
10 yrs of tax returns for Pres a VP candidates. This helps voting ???
Any political division - state, county, district etc. that had a given number of civil rights violation in last 25 yrs comes under federal control on voting rules. What does violations 25 yrs ago have to do with todays voting?
15 days of early voting. But still can register on election day.
Mandatory drop off of early ballots. These can be harvested ballots.
On line registration. I bet a bot could register since there is a provision that limits which data bases can be cross referenced for eligibility
Ballots can count if received 10 days after election day. How about just dropping into drop box during early voting days.
Vote anywhere in the state. precinct no longer matters.
Any legal challenge can only be filed in D.C. That puts challenge before the most liberal district in the county.
Any federal judge can suspend any voting practice before a hearing.
Match donation under certain amount up to 6-1.

Maybe more to come as I reread the bill.

[Simon of the Playa]

one person, one vote.

real simple.


the GOP does not have the numbers and has to cheat to win by pushing voters off the rolls.


real simple.





the voting rights act scares the fuck out of those who want to retain their ill-gotten hegemony by any means neccessary.


real simple.

[some seeing eye]

Oregon has had vote by mail since 1981, and 100% vote by mail since 1995. Our senators Wyden and Merkley have had a bill ready for national mail voting ready for years. More states are adopting it.

The ballot comes in the mail with the League of Women Voters voters' guide with each candidate's self submitted platform and pros and cons for initiatives. You have about 3 weeks to vote, put it in the security envelope, then put it in the send in envelope which you sign. The signature is compared to the one on file, just like a poll worker would do. You can drop it off in locked ballot boxes, like a polling place would have at any library, or at a locked drive up box at the county elections office. If you put it in the mail, no stamp is required.

No time off from work. No getting to the polling place. The counting computer is secure, unlike having thousands of touch screen voting computer security challenges.

They collect the ballots from the locked boxes every day, verify the signatures, and publish a list of who has returned their ballot to the parties for get out the vote efforts targeting the people who have not yet returned their ballots.

At a certain point, the signature envelopes are separated from the ballots, and the ballots become anonymous for counting beginning at poll closing time. Up to that point, you can request a new ballot to change your vote or do it in person at the election office. Your old ballot, still in the sealed secret envelope,, is pulled and discarded and the new one replaces it. You can check online to see if your ballot was removed from the envelope and counted.

[DVD Burner]

POLITICS AND RELIGION


IS


4


SUCKERS!



LET'S GET REAL!

[Simon of the Playa]

Today, former president Jimmy Carter, who co-founded the Carter Center with his wife Rosalynn to promote democracy and human rights, published an op-ed in the New York Times titled: “I Fear for Our Democracy.”

“I have… seen how…democratic systems…can fall to military juntas or power-hungry despots,” he wrote. He urged Americans to respect free and fair elections, refuse violence, pass election reforms that would make it easier to vote, and ignore disinformation. “Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss,” he wrote. “Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy.”

Today, Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke about the first anniversary of the attack on the Capitol. He reassured those frustrated that prosecutors have so far charged only the rioters themselves, while those who planned and then incited the insurrection still walk free. Garland explained that large investigations always begin with the smaller, easier cases while the department builds a timeline and gathers evidence. He promised that the Justice Department will follow the facts and that it will hold “all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law—whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.”

He called attention to the fact that the Department of Justice has issued more than 5,000 subpoenas and search warrants, seized around 2,000 devices, watched more than 20,000 hours of video, and searched through 15 terabytes of data. It has arrested and charged more than 725 defendants.

And then he gave an eloquent defense of democracy and the voting rights on which it depends. After all, Congress established the Department of Justice in 1870 to protect the civil rights promised in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments by protecting the right of Black Americans to vote and so have a say in their government.

Those who wrote the Reconstruction Amendments believed that voting was central to the concept of self-government, a belief Congress reinforced in 1965 with the Voting Rights Act that gave the Department of Justice new tools to protect the right to vote. But in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder case, the Supreme Court gutted that law. Immediately, states began to pass laws to restrict voting. Lately, that push has gotten even stronger.

Garland promised that the Justice Department will continue to do all it can with the powers it has, but he called it “essential” for Congress to give the department the power it needs to guarantee that “every eligible voter can cast a vote that counts.”

What is at stake today in America is the nature of our government. Will we accept an authoritarian government like that currently under attack in Kazakhstan, in which an autocratic leader funnels money to his cronies while ordinary people struggle, unable to fix the system that is rigged against them until finally they lay down their lives to change it? Or will we restore the principles on which the Founders based this nation: “that all men are created equal” and that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed...”?

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.c ... 5-2021-744

[lucky420]

Bet Margery and gang bout shit their britches after hearing Garland’s speech

Tik tok motherfuckers

[Simon of the Playa]

"There is no gray area when it comes to Jan. 6. There’s right and there’s wrong. Any politician who fails to take an aggressive stand in defense of American democracy during this moment of peril has no business continuing in elective office."

https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editor ... 7d89d.html

[Simon of the Playa]

"America has always had more than its share of malcontents, of lunatics and violent nutters, the proudly ignorant and outright stupid, the sociopaths and the religious extremists, and while they nipped around the edges of our society, they were rightly relegated to the shadows.

Ronald Reagan and Lee Atwater and their version of The Southern Strategy brought the howling fringe into the Republican Party. But it was a war started on lies and the election of a black man to the highest office in the nation that normalized the most unhinged and brought them front and center.

There was always going to be consequences.

You can't spend decades building a political ideology based on hate and rage and not expect that there will be violence.

And it's always -- always -- downhill.

An ideology of hate and rage cannot build a better society, cannot create a better world, even for itself. It can only destroy.

Those who warp reality to fit their ideology can never ever be trusted to tell the truth, or ever see it.

When you raise up ignorance, extremism, and violence as not only normal but something to be admired, then the most admired must perforce be the most ignorant, extreme, and violent.

How did we get here?

How did we end up a year ago today, watching ignorant violent extremists storm the Capitol of our country shouting the name of an ignorant violent extremist, waving the very flags of violent extremism, in support of an violent extremist ideology?

That's how."

https://www.stonekettle.com/2022/01/ins ... ar-on.html

[Simon of the Playa]

Kevin McCarthy is being blackmailed by Trump.


this will come out soon enough.


https://www.axios.com/liz-cheney-kevin- ... d7e7c.html

[Lonesomebri]

Evolving perspectives

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[Simon of the Playa]

“You know, I think the one thing that, if I could wave a magic wand and have more information on, it would certainly be what did the president know about January 6 leading up to January 6,” Mr Kinzinger said. “Was the president absolutely incompetent or a coward during the 6th when he didn’t do anything? Or did he know it was coming?”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 89640.html


https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-c ... ger-2022-1

[The Rod]

malarkey

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[Simon of the Playa]

The new subpoenas show the select committee is moving ever nearer to Trump in its investigation and suggests the panel is now examining whether the former president’s speech suggested that the White House had advance knowledge of plans to attack the Capitol.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -subpoenas

[Simon of the Playa]

The new indictment, handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday and made public Thursday, alleges that Rhodes and his co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to "oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force, by preventing, hindering, or delaying by force execution of laws governing the transfer of power."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/politics ... index.html

[Elliot]

Brand new -- many years old -- topic, but is hopefully a reasonably good fit for this thread.

I'm looking for a specific quote by... specifically whom?

This is about something that was said, and who said it, in the presidential campaign of either 2008, 2012, or 2016. The grotesque blunder in question... is nailed down in my mind far more vividly than what year and by whom, which is why I seek help from less senile brains.

What the man said was so bass-ackwards contrary to US interest -- and so spectacularly unwise for supposedly having at least a slight clue about foreign policy -- that it deserves to be saved for future reference – a What-Not-To-Do lesson.

The perpetrator was a Republican involved in or supporting the Republican campaign. He may possibly have been a candidate himself.

The general topic was terrorism by Muslim extremists.

The specific topic was about an American official offending Muslims by what the American said in some form of public statement.

The Republican I am looking for commented on this by saying something along the lines of the following:

We should offend Muslims at every opportunity, because they deserve to be offended.

(For the youngsters in the room... What this Republican failed to understand, is that we are target of terrorism precisely because we offend them, and sometimes we even go out of our way to do it.)

Anyone remember this better than I do? (Shouldn't take much, ha ha.) Thanks!
.

[Canoe]

... We should offend Muslims at every opportunity, because they deserve to be offended. ...
... The perpetrator was a Republican involved in or supporting the Republican campaign. He may possibly have been a candidate himself.

Well that narrows it down...

Might it have been

“If you’re seen to criticise Islam you are often accused of racism, which is absurd."
“I’m all for offending people’s religion. I think it should be offended at every opportunity”.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/peop ... 43226.html

[Elliot]

Thank you, Canoe!
This is precicely the sort of clue I am hoping for.

And while the date would fit, it is entirely possible that my memory is off by a continent or two. Though... I still feel pretty sure it was directly related to a US presidential campaign, which I believe is why I remember so strongly what I believe I remember (ha ha).

The struggle against superstitions -- especially the centrally organized superstitions for personal gain (a.k.a. religion), which is Richard Dawkins' life work -- is a separate topic.

Of course, correcting me would be every bit as valuable as confirming my (dubious) memory!
Anyone else wanna play?
.

[Canoe]

... Though... I still feel pretty sure it was directly related to a US presidential campaign, ...

Could easily be. It wouldn't be the first time a politician/staff (pushing, fading, irrelevant, wannabe, etc.) has taken something they heard and twisted it to make some rhetoric to try and fly. Listen to me, look at me, be enraged, be offended, I don't care - just pay me attention. Which is why for the topic/sound bite, with a perp of
> ... a Republican involved in or supporting the Republican campaign. He may possibly have been a candidate himself.
that topic is a classic instigator for clawing or cawing for attention. So with all of the people crawling out from under a woodpile hoping to get elected or work on an election, that combination really doesn't narrow it down.

[Simon of the Playa]

buh-bye.

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/15/10734078 ... ws-network

[FIGJAM]

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