The Random Politics Thread

[LadySkinsFan]

Not to mention all the men who are corporate sellouts.

[China]

[China]

 

[Larry]

17 minutes ago, China said:

 

Is there a search engine or something that journalists can use, to find photos of politicians that make them look like Baghdad Bob?  For use with stories like this one?  

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

Fixing problems that don't exist.   Thanks!

 

Senator Seeks to Ban Nonexistent 'Meatless Monday' Policy at Agencies

 

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, this week introduced legislation that would ban federal agency cafeterias from serving only vegetarian fare, despite the fact that no agency has ever actually done this and many food service facilities are closed due to the pandemic.

 

The Telling Agencies to Stop Tweaking What Employees Eat Act (S. 1082) apparently stems from a brief controversy at the Agriculture Department nearly a decade ago. In 2012, the department sent employees a newsletter encouraging employees to consider going one day per week without eating meat as part of Meatless Mondays, a campaign to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of meat production.

 

“When I hear calls from the liberal left—everyone from out-of-touch politicians to Hollywood elites—encouraging people to ban meat and the quality agriculture products we produce here in Iowa, it makes me sizzle,” Ernst said in a statement announcing her legislation. “Our federal agencies shouldn’t be encouraging people to ban agricultural products at the expense of America’s hardworking farmers and producers. Congress needs to make its intention known that we should get ‘Meatless Mondays’ and other types of activist bans against agricultural products out of our government dining halls.”

 

There has never been a “ban” on meat at federal agencies, however. The Agriculture Department’s 2012 newsletter raised the hackles of congressional Republicans and the meat lobby. Following the outcry, the department quickly retracted its suggestion, which would have been voluntary, and meat has been available for purchase at its dining halls on any day the cafeterias were open.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Evil Genius]

She must hate Catholics on Fridays during lent.

[PleaseBlitz]

I love that, in the middle of railing against something that does not actually happen, the Senator took a shot at "out of touch politicians."  

 

 

[The Evil Genius]

 

A political issue that both parties are largely afraid to rule on...

Edited April 21, 2021 by The Evil Genius

[LadySkinsFan]

I voted on Monday, the first early voting day for our local elections. City council seats and some changes to our city charter.

[Fresh8686]

 

[China]

North Texas Congressional Candidate Susan Wright Calls FBI After Robocall Suggests She ‘Murdered’ Husband

 

exas Republican congressional candidate Susan Wright is seeking help from federal law enforcement the day before her special election, after some supporters said they received robocalls accusing her of being responsible for the death of her late husband, Rep. Ron Wright, Politico reported on Friday, April 30.

 

Ron Wright, who had been battling lung cancer since 2020 and recently contracted COVID-19, died Sunday, February 8.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Captain Wiggles]

Quote

“This is illegal, immoral, and wrong,” said Susan Wright in a statement. “There’s not a sewer too deep that some politicians won’t plumb. "

 

[China]

There's the rub

 

Regina businessman Trevor Wowk has organized protests of COVID-19 restrictions and run for office on a platform of family values. He also quietly runs a massage parlour in his home that offers sex for sale.

 

A Saskatchewan man who promoted "traditional" family values as a candidate for the People's Party of Canada and has been an outspoken critic of COVID-19 lockdown measures helps manage a massage parlour network that offers "sexual encounters," a CBC investigation has learned.

 

Trevor Wowk's business came to CBC's attention earlier this year through a tip from a contractor working on Wowk's Regina home, who said he helped install several massage rooms and a sauna.

 

When a CBC reporter did an undercover inquiry for services available at Wowk's business, he was offered sex by Wowk's wife, who works in a massage parlour located in his own home. His wife is a Chinese national currently seeking immigration through the family sponsorship program.

 

The 59-year-old businessman says the massage workers he works with are qualified to offer traditional Chinese medicine techniques, and he rejects the notion that prostitution is involved — though he admits he can't be certain.

 

"I'm not in the room. I don't have cameras in the rooms. I can neither prove if they do or if they don't," he told CBC in an interview. "What they do behind their closed doors of their massage clinic is up to them." Wowk said he does advise the massage parlour workers that having sex with clients "could risk their licence and registration."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

 

[China]

Ohio Politician’s Fake Zoom Background Can’t Hide That He’s Driving

 

This past year, pretty much everyone struggled with one form of video call trouble or another. Forgetting to unmute oneself before talking, appearing on camera looking like a sewer rat (me), or using backgrounds that don't obscure your disheveled housemates. Or, in the case of Ohio state Senator Andrew Brenner, using a background that couldn't hide that he was splitting his attention between duties as a legislator and driving. Y'know, two things that deserve his undivided attention.

 

Brenner, a first-term Republican state senator, attended Monday's brief convening of the Ohio Controlling Board on a video call with his fellow legislators, most of whom called in from their homes. The Godwin's law-invoking Brenner, however, called in from his car which was initially parked, but after fiddling with his phone and activating an office-esque background, Brenner began to drive. Even if his background's faulty cropping obscured his moving surroundings, his main focus would've been given away by the presence of a seatbelt and the regular diversion of his eyes.

 

 

The state Senator's video call hijinks may have gone almost unnoticed, had he not that same day heard a bill introduced in the Ohio Senate proposing stricter limitations on distracted driving. If passed, House Bill 283 could ban almost all use of electronics while driving, and Brenner, who activated his camera with the background on the move before turning it back off within 20 seconds, would fly afoul of it.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

FFRF wins major court victory against Gov. Abbott censorship

 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has been granted permanent relief in its six-year lawsuit challenging Gov. Greg Abbott’s censorship of its Winter Solstice display in the Texas Capitol.

U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel ruled in favor of FFRF in its federal challenge of censorship of its freethought display in the Capitol in 2015. Yeakel ordered declaratory and injunctive relief to ensure that Abbott and the State Preservation Board will not violate FFRF’s free speech rights in the future.

 

The court, after officially rendering its verdict in favor of FFRF’s First Amendment freedom-of-speech claim, granted it protection from future viewpoint censorship and issued an injunction and this declaration:

 

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED AND DECLARED that defendants violate the Foundation’s First Amendment rights and engage in viewpoint discrimination as a matter of law when they exclude the Foundation’s exhibit based on the perceived offensiveness of its message.

 

FFRF, with help from members and with requisite sponsorship by a legislator, had placed a Winter Solstice display in the state Capitol in December 2015 as a response to a Christian nativity. FFRF’s whimsical display depicted the Founders and the Statue of Liberty celebrating the “birth” of the Bill of Rights (which was adopted on Dec. 15, 1791). Abbott, as chair of the Texas State Preservation Board, while permitting the Christian exhibit, ordered FFRF’s display removed only three days after it was erected, lambasting it as indecent, mocking and contributing to public immorality.

 

FFRF initially won its lawsuit at the district court level, which ruled that Abbott and the State Preservation Board had violated FFRF’s free speech rights. In April 2020, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that FFRF was entitled to more permanent, lasting relief than the district court initially awarded, and sent the case back to that court to award such relief. Today, the district court granted FFRF prospective relief by enjoining Abbott and the board from censoring FFRF’s speech in the future.

 

Abbott has long demonized atheists and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, going so far as to warn FFRF “not to mess with Texas.”

 

“In fact it was Abbott who ‘messed’ with free speech,” comments Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. “If governmental bodies create public forums, they cannot then censor unpopular or minority points of view.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

No thanks. I'll stick to my 20 dollar coin of Melania Trump.

[China]

Missouri governor pulls voter-approved Medicaid expansion Amendment citing lack of funding

 

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday that the state was “formally withdrawing” from voter-approved Medicaid health care expansion that's now enshrined in the state constitution.

 

Voters last year added Missouri to the list of states to approve Medicaid expansion under former President Barack Obama’s federal health care law. However, Missouri lawmakers voted in late March against funding the voter-approved expansion, and Parson’s move Thursday officially pulled the voter-approved amendment from the state's constitution.

 

Parson said in a statement the Missouri Constitution prohibits ballot initiatives from appropriating funds without creating a revenue source.

 

“Although I was never in support of MO HealthNet expansion, I always said that I would uphold the ballot amendment if it passed,” Parson said. “The majority of Missouri voters supported it, and we included funds for the expansion in our budget proposal.

 

“However, without a revenue source or funding authority from the General Assembly, we are unable to proceed with the expansion at this time and must withdraw our State Plan Amendments to ensure Missouri’s existing MO HealthNet program remains solvent.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Looks like The Lincoln Project is rebranding itself as The Franklin Project:

 

The Franklin Project

 

 

[LD0506]

Having a hard time finding civility for a horde that would willingly kill anyone disagreeing with their warped views.

[skinsmarydu]

Sometimes the comments are the best. 

 

[China]

Oregon counties vote to secede to Idaho

 

Voters in five rural Oregon counties approved measures on Tuesday to consider joining the state of Idaho, a part of a long-shot grassroots movement to break with a state dominated by liberal voters west of the Cascade Mountains.

 

Voters in Malheur, Sherman, Grant, Baker and Lake counties all approved measures that would require county officials to take steps to promote moving the Idaho border west to incorporate their populations. 

 

Oregon voters favored President Biden over former President Trump by a 56 percent to 40 percent margin in 2020, but voters in those five rural counties gave between 69 percent and 79 percent of the vote to Trump. 

 

They join two other rural counties — Jefferson and Union — whose voters approved measures promoting a move to Idaho last year.

 

The local measures are backed by Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho, a local organization that wants to grow Idaho west and south into some counties in Northern California.

 

“This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon. If Oregon really believes in liberal values such as self-determination, the Legislature won’t hold our counties captive against our will,” said Mike McCarter, a conservative activist who heads the group. “If we’re allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well.”

 

Sherman County’s ballot initiative required county commissioners to promote realigning the borders. The other four counties require commissioners to meet a few times a year to discuss the prospects of moving state lines.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

Quote

The amendments require parents to sign a permission slip for students to practice yoga. They also bar school personnel from using “hypnosis, the induction of a dissociative mental state, guided imagery, meditation or any aspect of Eastern philosophy.”