The Random Politics Thread

[China]

West Virginia GOP fractured by political appointment feud

 

On a beach vacation in South Carolina with his family, Jay Marcum was awaiting a call from the governor of West Virginia. He was a finalist for the vacant seat of a state legislator who resigned after being charged with illegally entering the U.S. Capitol in the Jan. 6 riot.

 

Instead, state Republican leaders ordered a redo on candidate applications and insisted Marcum return home for an in-person interview.

 

“I don’t really understand why we can’t do a Zoom,” he told them. Nevertheless, the 51-year-old small-business owner packed up his disappointed children and left Myrtle Beach at 6 a.m. for the nine-hour trip home.

 

Ultimately, his journey was for naught: Republican Gov. Jim Justice ended up appointing neither Marcum nor either of the two other candidates who had been placed on a shortlist by GOP party leaders in Wayne County, where the delegate seat is located.

 

Justice instead appointed a political neophyte, enraging Republicans in the rural county and unleashing accusations of subterfuge and backdoor politics in the Mountain State.

 

The fracas comes on the heels of a triumphant red wave in the November elections that gave West Virginia’s Republican party a legislative supermajority. For the first time in generations, a Republican won in Wayne County, long dominated by Democrats. But Del. Derrick Evans soon resigned under pressure after he recorded himself joining the violent pro-Trump mob that breached the Capitol.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Scoop: Schiff lobbying Newsom to be California's next AG

 

Rep. Adam Schiff is quietly lobbying Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies to appoint him California’s next attorney general, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

Why it matters: If Newsom selects Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a confidant of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Democrats would lose a powerful party voice in the U.S. House and temporarily give up a seat in their slim 221-211 majority.

 

Nonetheless, Pelosi has given her approval to Schiff’s bid, a clear sign she thinks she can manage without him. according to people familiar with the matter. Spokespersons for Schiff and Pelosi declined comment.

The attorney general's job also would better position Schiff, a high-profile Democrat who led the Russia investigation into then-President Trump, to run for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat, should the 87-year-old decide not to run for reelection in 2024.

The AG's job is being vacated by Xavier Becerra, who President Biden has nominated to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services.

The big picture: While Schiff represents California’s Los Angeles-based 28th District, a safe seat for Democrats, it would take roughly six months for a special election to select his successor.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 10/15/2020 at 7:41 PM, China said:

Former Idaho GOP Governor Candidate Charged With Murder In Girl's 1984 Cold Case Killing

 

In 1984, a 12-year-old girl from Greeley, Colorado, Jonelle Matthews, went missing. She was eventually declared dead.
 

Now, over 35 years later, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate, Steve Pankey of Idaho, has been arrested and charged with her murder as well as several other crimes connected to her disappearance. 

 

Pankey ran for Idaho Governor in 2018 on an adamantly "pro-life" platform. He was arrested at his home in Meridian, Idaho on Monday, October 12, according to Weld County Colorado District Attorney Michael Rourke.

 

Click on the link for the full article 

 

Former Gubernatorial Candidate Pleads Not Guilty to Murdering 12-Year-Old Jonelle Matthews Decades Ago

[LD0506]

Meet the Real Dark Money GOP Donors Who Funded Those Who Voted to Overturn the Election

Major companies and executives of Wall Street firms, fossil fuel businesses, a casino empire, and a shipping giant supplied super PACs and other outside spending groups with hundreds of millions of dollars to elect the Republican election deniers.

 

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/28/meet-real-dark-money-gop-donors-who-funded-those-who-voted-overturn-election?utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR33k9HV8gXGH0wU_-bIx6BF_Z8Uef_KPK3MaGztpxAPjwTKlVFhekbU-gQ#Echobox=1611871256

 

[skinsmarydu]

Rachel is on a roll tonight!

[LD0506]

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

 

 

[skinsmarydu]

President Biden (y'all know I haven't used that term in years, much less CAPITALIZED it)...(big sigh of relief to finally do it)...

 

just landed back from a weekend home.  Goin' right back to work for us. 

Yesterday, sports sucked for me.  But I'm okay now.  I have a President. 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

 

 

[China]

Tim Eyman violated campaign finance law, judge rules, is barred from controlling political committees

 

Tim Eyman, who for two decades has been Washington state’s most prolific conservative activist and political provocateur, committed “numerous and particularly egregious” violations of campaign finance law, a judge ruled Wednesday, as he barred Eyman from controlling the finances of political committees in the future.

 

The verdict, in a long-running case in Thurston County Superior Court, could bring an end to Eyman’s years of running anti-tax initiatives that have had outsize influence on the finances of state and local governments.

 

“Mr. Eyman’s violations had a significant and material impact on the public,” Judge James Dixon ruled. “Mr. Eyman has personally benefited economically from these allegations.”

Dixon barred Eyman from “managing, controlling, negotiating, or directing financial transactions” for any kind of political committee.

 

Dixon issued a fine of more than $2.6 million. Dixon ruled that Eyman himself is a continuing political committee, under the definition in state law, and should have been filing monthly campaign finance reports for years. Eyman, Dixon said, 2,975 days late in filing reports, as of the start of the trial.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

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Arkansas lawmaker suspended from committees for 3 days for swearing

 

An Arkansas state senator has been suspended from serving on two committees for three days because she called a colleague a “dumbass” during a debate over a failed resolution.

 

The Arkansas Senate voted 25-4 to forfeit Democratic state Sen. Stephanie Flowers’ privileges on the chamber’s Judiciary Committee and the City, County and Local Affairs Committee from Feb. 15-17.

 

The move came a day after the majority-Republican Senate censured Flowers over the remark she directed at GOP state Sen. Trent Garner during a debate over a proposed resolution that cited the country’s “ongoing positive record on race and slavery” and attacked Democrats’ history on civil rights issues.

 

The resolution was overwhelmingly rejected, with lawmakers from both parties criticizing it.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The Lege This Week: Senators Poke, Prod and Punch Paxton

 

The scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton surfaced this week to defend himself before the Senate Finance Committee, which is proposing to cut his office’s budget. It didn’t go well. 

 

Paxton has asked the Legislature to fund his office to the tune of $1.26 billion over the next two years. Instead, the Senate Finance Committee is proposing to slash nearly $90 million–and about 150 staff positions—from Paxton’s budget request. It’s a stark rebuke to the former state senator, especially since the committee agreed to give other statewide officeholders, like the governor and comptroller, exactly what they asked for. 

 

During the hearing, the attorney general took a barrage of critical questions from his former colleagues on a broad range of matters. Senator Royce West, D-Dallas, pressed him on the legitimacy of a lawsuit—which was reportedly written by Trump allies and filed by Paxtonn—asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn other states’ election results. Paxton fumbled through his explanations, ultimately claiming that “we felt like the voters of Texas were disenfranchised.” Paxton’s top aides pushed back against filing the suit and his solicitor general Kyle Hawkins, who has since resigned, refused to put his name on it. The Supreme Court immediately dismissed the case. A Paxton aide told the committee that the political stunt only cost the state $12,000 in printing costs. When West pressed Paxton on how much time he and his top staff spent on the case, the attorney general said they didn’t keep track.  

 

Senator John Whitmire, D-Houston, asked Paxton whether any state funds were used to travel to Washington, where he spoke at the “Save America” rally that preceded the Capitol riots. Paxton didn’t directly answer the question, but did say the trip also included official state business at the White House. After speaking at the rally, Paxton told the committee that he and his wife “went and had lunch, and people did what they did”—an oblique reference to the Trump supporters who went on to storm the Capitol after the rally. 

 

Paxton wasn’t spared by the committee’s Republican legislators either. Senator Joan Huffman, R-Houston, prodded Paxton about his request to spend $43 million on outside attorneys for the multistate antitrust lawsuit against Google that his office is leading. She pointed out that his office has about 700 lawyers on staff.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Local Florida officials passed a resolution mocking a newspaper columnist’s work and immigrant background

 

As an opinion writer for Florida Today’s editorial board, Isadora Rangel often took officials to task in deep-red Brevard County, where every county commissioner is a Republican.

 

So when Rangel left for her new job at the Miami Herald this week, Brevard County commissioners used their political authority to bid her good riddance. They debated a resolution “honoring” her with sarcastic praise for her writing — and thinly veiled swipes at her background as an immigrant.

 

“Whereas because of her eloquent prose the circulation of Florida Today dropped only 16 percent during her tenure,” commissioner John Tobia said at Tuesday’s commission meeting, reading his resolution from the dais.

 

“Whereas her dedication to Brevard is exemplified by her accepting a position with the Miami Herald a mere three years after coming here,” he continued. “And whereas her liberal views will be sorely missed by the Brevard Democrats alike …”

 

Commissioner Bryan Lober interjected at one point to propose an amendment: “Whereas throughout her employment with Florida Today, Ms. Rangel never once let the fact that she’s forbidden from voting in this county deter her from commenting on … politics and criticizing numerous elected officials.” He turned to his colleagues. “I don’t know if you’d be okay with that.”

 

They were okay with that, and added the language to the resolution.

 

Lober then took off his mask to propose a second, less “palatable” addition to the resolution. “Whereas … Ms. Rangel deserves recognition for selflessly remaining in this country, not withstanding our nearly tenfold higher per capita GDP and approximately one-sixth the murder rate of the country from which she hails,” he said, then leaned back and smirked. His colleagues rejected this final amendment, but it still got laughs from the dais.

 

“I thought this was a commission meeting,” one commissioner quipped. “This sounds more like a comedy club to me.”

 

The “Resolution honoring Florida Today Reporter Isadora Rangel” passed 5 to 0.

 

Before they moved on to other agenda items — drainage easements and warranty deeds — Tobia and Lober offered to pay for framed copies of the Rangel resolution.

 

As the lone opinion writer at Florida Today, Rangel had often criticized the commission. She blasted a ceremonial resolution about upholding the U.S. Constitution as “political farce,” accused Tobia of “grandstanding” for introducing a resolution opposing Puerto Rican statehood, over which Brevard County has no authority, and went after the commission for its handling of federal funds.

 

Click on the link for the full story

[skinsmarydu]

[China]

Tennessee Legislator Who Suggested White People May Become Slaves One Day Introduces Bill Allowing Men to Stop Abortions

 

Republican legislator Rep. Jerry Sexton sponsored a bill this week that would allow men a powerful ability to interfere with a woman’s right to have an abortion. State Sen. Mark Pody sponsored the related Senate bill.

 

The legislation, SB0494 in the Senate and HB1079 in the House, permits a man to seek an injunction that would legally prohibit a woman from terminating her pregnancy. The bill grants the right to the “biological father,” but leaves unmarried women entirely out of the process of determining that status. Instead, it requires only that the petitioner acknowledge paternity in writing.

 

Sexton has come under fire for many of his legislative efforts in the past, including bills that would have designated the Holy Bible, as the state book of Tennessee, ban same-sex marriage in Tennessee, and preserve Confederate statues. Sexton also introduced a potential deal during the COVID-19 pandemic that would have allowed the state to purchase  hospital gowns at inflated prices that were manufactured by Sexton’s furniture company. Sexton was a signatory to a letter dated January 5, 2021 supporting Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election.

 

Sexton can be seen below, relating attitudes about reproductive freedom to ideology that “Blacks or Jews were less than human.”

 

“Maybe some of us will be slaves one of these days. Laws change,” Sexton warns.

 

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Ted Cruz Is Fuming After Being Laughed At For Falling For A Conservative Parody Article From The Babylon Bee

 

Oh, Ted Cruz. On one hand, it’s almost admirable that the much maligned senator from Texas can’t stop owning himself on Twitter (it is a kind-of talent, albeit a dubious accomplishment). On the other hand, doesn’t the dude have a job to do? There’s the pandemic response and all the U.S. political upheaval and now a Texas ice storm to navigate, and Cruz’s been busying himself by smarting off over Shakespeare after beefing with Seth Rogen and Cary Elwes and losing both battles. Ted’s latest self-takedown was a doozy, given that he fell for a parody article (from conservative parody site The Babylon Bee) while tweeting, “I wish this was parody.”

 

He’s the master at self-humiliation, and he keeps coming back for more. Much like the Zodiac Killer, the Cruz just can’t stop. After he noticed how people were laughing at him for falling for an article with such a ridiculous headline (“Disney Posts Job Ad Looking For Strong, Fierce Women Who Are Also Obedient, Submissive, And Docile,” a reference to Gina Carano’s The Mandalorian firing), Ted got defensive and frustrated, so he said something that makes, uh, very little sense:

 

“Why do you have to explain irony to Newsweek?” could mean a lot of things, but it definitely doesn’t communicate that Ted acknowledges that he fell for a parody article. Surprise, surprise, people are firing shots at him over this comeback, too.

 

 

Click on the link for more

 

[China]

 

[China]

South Carolina considers breaking up public health agency

 

South Carolina’s public health workers have been tasked with keeping the state safe for 143 years, ever since lawmakers created a health board in 1878 after a yellow fever outbreak killed 20,000 Americans.

 

Now, as the coronavirus pandemic surges, legislators are trying to break their agency apart.

 

As in most states, South Carolina’s public health agency was underfunded and overworked long before it had to sustain an exhausting defense against a virus humans had never seen before.

 

Criticism has mounted from all sides since then — over a slow rollout of testing, the agency’s refusal to release detailed data on early cases, and for seeming to sideline its top epidemiologist.

 

Now a new director has stepped into what many see as a leadership vacuum, but lawmakers intent on dismantling the Department of Health and Environmental Control aren’t cutting him much slack.

 

Dr. Edward Simmer is the first medical doctor to helm the agency in nearly four decades — a fact that surprises Simmer himself. He told The Associated Press in an interview that he’ll put science at the center of his dealings with the public, the legislature and the governor.

 

“Obviously, there are political aspects to what DHEC does. My focus is to be as apolitical as we can be,” Simmer said.

 

Unlike most public health agencies, South Carolina’s portfolio has included environmental regulation since the 1970s. It now has nearly 4,000 employees, overseeing everything from water quality, dams and landfills to hospitals and vaccine distribution.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[skinsmarydu]

This character needs a cactus enema. 

 

 

[China]

Fail.

 

Gallatin County man accused of submitting false voter registration under name “Miguel Raton”

 

A Gallatin County man is accused of falsely filling out a voter registration form under the name “Miguel Raton” — Spanish for Mickey Mouse — in an effort to prove how easy it was to commit voter fraud.

 

Michael Winters is charged with felony tampering with public records or information. He has not been served with the complaint, according to court records.

 

Prosecutors filed the charges in Gallatin County District Court on Feb. 4. There were no defense attorneys listed in the court records.

 

The case comes months after a hotly contested presidential election, one where former president Donald Trump baselessly claimed that, if he lost, it was likely due to systemic voter fraud.

Election officials have said there was no significant evidence of fraud in the November elections, and Congress later certified president Joe Biden as the winner.

 

In June 2020, someone filed an online complaint with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission against Winters, claiming that he filed a false voter registration application under the name “Miguel Raton.”

 

The person later told an FBI agent that Winters had talked about voter fraud issues and wanted to prove how easy it was to commit voter fraud, court documents say. Winters told the informant that he specifically used the Spanish name for Mickey Mouse.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[skinsmarydu]

 

[China]

I’m Freezing Cold and Burning Mad in Texas

 

The great winter storm of 2021 has terrorized Texans, overwhelmed our energy grid, and made a mockery of our politicians and our much-vaunted independence.

 

Major cities across the state have opened “warming centers,” and churches and schools have opened their doors, but when the roads are so treacherous, one wonders how the vulnerable are supposed to reach shelter. The entirety of North Texas has just 30 snowplows—or about as many as you would expect to see deployed in a single neighborhood in Chicago.

 

The biggest story for Texans, however, is the failure of our state’s electrical grid, managed by the inaccurately named Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. Texas, as part of its regular and continuing efforts to distance itself from federal oversight, maintains its own electrical grid—unique in the nation—which has been overwhelmed by the storm’s effects.

 

You might be surprised to learn that Texas is the Saudi Arabia of wind energy, and that wind turbines in the panhandle generate much of our power. Many of those turbines have failed in the low temperatures, and conservatives both in Texas and across the country have gleefully claimed as a result that renewables cannot be trusted to provide power in emergencies. There is, as ever, a very small grain of truth to that.

 

But the data—forever inconvenient to those looking to confirm their priors—suggest the failure goes well beyond renewables. If anything, wind and solar have overperformed in this crisis relative to fossil fuels, and to natural-gas-fired generation in particular. The irony of Texas—the natural-gas capital of the Western Hemisphere, where technological advances in hydraulic fracturing have remade the world’s energy map over the past decade—failing to generate enough natural-gas-fired power is lost on none of the state’s 29 million citizens.

 

Well, almost none of its 29 million citizens.

 

There is a certain kind of conservative politician here in Texas who spends a sizable part of his day obsessing about the state of California. Such politicians have spent much of the past few years mercilessly teasing the progressive leadership of California for the failures of the state’s power grid.

 

These politicians have been, for the most part, conspicuously quiet since the crisis began here. The state’s governor, Greg Abbott, has mostly popped up on reliably friendly media outlets—local news stations, the evening shows on Fox News—where he knows he will not face hard questions.

 

But hard questions will be asked, because the failures of ERCOT ultimately belong to the leaders of a state who insisted that, by design, the buck must stop with them and not with the federal government. “The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” one expert told the Houston Chronicle. “It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances.”

 

Fixing ERCOT will require actual governance, as opposed to performative governance, and that is something the state’s leadership has struggled with of late. Rather than address the challenges associated with rapid growth, the state’s elected leaders have preferred to focus on various lib-owning initiatives such as the menace of transgender athletes, whether or not NBA games feature the national anthem, and—in a triumph of a certain brand of contemporary “conservatism”—legislating how local municipalities can allocate their own funds.

 

I’m anxious to see how our governor, in particular, will respond to this crisis, because I have never witnessed a more cowardly politician. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]