The Random Politics Thread

[China]

On 5/19/2021 at 10:53 PM, China said:

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

 

Rural Oregon’s movement to join Idaho has momentum but little hope of success

 

The third-generation Oregonian loves the land he calls home. His grandfather, Victor, was the first person to plant Christmas trees west of the Mississippi River and started an industry-based society for other tree farmers. Ems, 30, became a Christmas tree farmer himself and took up a brief stint as a horse breeder.

 

Ems said the leaders of his state are out of touch with the everyday lives of rural Oregonians such as himself, so he joined a growing movement that aims to split 21 counties off from Oregon and place them under Idaho’s governance.

 

Seven counties have voted to join, and five are gathering petition signatures to get the movement's proposal onto the ballot.

 

"Nobody from the valley between Portland and Eugene understands what goes on in these rural parts," Ems told USA TODAY. It's led to an urban/rural "imbalance of power," he said.

 

Ems, who spent time as a part-time policy analyst in the Oregon Legislature, said he's dismayed by what's come out of the governing body.

 

"Some of the policies that they put forward and then they enact have no benefit or have an undue burden for these rural counties," he said.

 

The Greater Idaho Movement faces a daunting path: Its ambitious proposal requires the approval of both the Oregon and Idaho Legislatures, followed by the U.S. Congress. 

 

Experts said the movement is a long shot. Organizers said it's still worth a shot.

 

William Curtis, a constitutional law professor from the University of Portland, pointed out that Idaho’s boundary as a state is defined by its constitution, which the Idaho Legislature would have to amend to incorporate Oregon counties.

 

Though the Greater Idaho Movement has made strides at the ballot box – a third of the counties it aims to annex have voted in favor of the movement’s proposal – Curtis said these collected votes have no decisive power in authorizing the annexation.

 

“The votes that they’ve had don’t have any political power,” Curtis said. “It’s almost like polls. They’re just indicating the support in these seven counties that a majority of the people … do wanna go join.”

 

map: What Oregon might look like if the Greater Idaho Movement’s proposal succeeds may be dramatically different from the state’s current geography.© Citizens of Greater Idaho What Oregon might look like if the Greater Idaho Movement’s proposal succeeds may be dramatically different from the state’s current geography.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Evil Genius]

I'm admittedly liberal but also married no kids. I have mixed feelings about this and it makes me question why.

 

 

[China]

On 5/24/2021 at 3:49 PM, China said:

I smell a lawsuit coming up:

 

Gov. DeSantis signs bill to stop tech companies from censoring politicians

 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill meant to punish tech companies that are accused of policing conservative thought.

 

The legislation aims to stop social media companies from “deplatforming” political candidates. It’s an apparent nod to President Donald Trump, who was banned from Twitter and Facebook earlier this year.

 

“What we’ve been seeing across the U.S. is an effort to silence, intimidate, and wipe out dissenting voices by the leftist media and big corporations. Today, by signing SB 7072 into law, Florida is taking back the virtual public square as a place where information and ideas can flow freely,” said Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez.

 

The bill gives the state’s election commission power to fine media companies up to $250,000 a day for “deplatforming” any candidate for statewide office, and $25,000 per day for de-platforming candidates for non-statewide offices.

 

It also gives Floridians the right to sue companies that violate the law, and win monetary damages, and lets Florida’s attorney general go after these companies.

 

“If social media platforms are found to have violated antitrust law, they will be restricted from contracting with any public entity. That ‘antitrust violator’ blacklist imposes real consequences for Big Tech oligopolies’ bottom line,” the governor’s office said in a news release.

 

The Florida House voted 77-38 in favor of the bill, the Senate, 23-17.

 

“This bill is a retaliation for the former presidential administration being banned from social media sites by spreading false information, inciting riots, sedition, and violence,” Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat who sought to kill the legislation, said in April.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Federal judge puts Florida 'deplatforming' law on hold, citing First Amendment

 

A federal judge Wednesday put on hold a first-of-its-kind law in Florida that authorized the state to penalize social media companies when they ban political candidates, a win for social media companies as they try to keep control of their platforms.

 

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law, which was scheduled to go into effect Thursday.

 

Hinkle said the law's ban on "deplatforming" likely violated the free speech rights of the tech companies, which under the First Amendment are generally free to decide what to publish without government interference.

 

"The legislation compels providers to host speech that violates their standards — speech they otherwise would not host — and forbids providers from speaking as they otherwise would," he wrote.

 

Referring to the sweeping scope of the law, he added: "Like prior First Amendment restrictions, this is an instance of burning the house to roast a pig."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LadySkinsFan]

On 6/21/2021 at 9:53 AM, The Evil Genius said:

I'm admittedly liberal but also married no kids. I have mixed feelings about this and it makes me question why.

 

 

 

I think it's our civic responsibility to support those who can't support themselves. That means children, elderly, and disabled persons. I also believe that persons who provide support for the population have the education and skill levels necessary and to be paid appropriately. That means better than subsistence wages.

[The Evil Genius]

11 hours ago, LadySkinsFan said:

 

I think it's our civic responsibility to support those who can't support themselves. That means children, elderly, and disabled persons. I also believe that persons who provide support for the population have the education and skill levels necessary and to be paid appropriately. That means better than subsistence wages.

 

But the phase out, I believe, is 240k agi for single filer and 440k agi for joint for the child credits... 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

On 6/21/2021 at 10:53 AM, The Evil Genius said:

I'm admittedly liberal but also married no kids. I have mixed feelings about this and it makes me question why.

 

 

The reason is Biden and Clinton want to subsidize the child farming industry for reasons that should be obvious.  🤪

Edited July 7, 2021 by CousinsCowgirl84

[Larry]

41 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

The reason is Biden and Clinton want to subsidize the child farming industry for reasons that should be obvious.  🤪

 

. . . to any conspiracy theory whackjob who uses phrases like "child farming industry".  

[China]

 

[China]

Civics literacy bill sponsors still questioning DeSantis veto of their legislation

 

Two St. Petersburg based state lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle are still unhappy and confused that Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill (SB 146) last week that called for a civic literacy program that would be included in high school government classes.

 

“Every member of the Legislature voted for this,” noted Ben Diamond, the Pinellas County based state representative who sponsored the bill in the Florida House. Republican Jeff Brandes, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said the proposal was essentially creating “the Eagle Scouts program for civics” that could give students real life experiences to intern and “build some advocacy for something that you believe in and work the process to get your ideas heard.”

 

But social conservatives called on DeSantis to veto the legislation, none more prominently than National Review columnist Stanley Kurtz.

 

Kurtz labeled the legislation a “stealth protest-civics bill – or “action civics,” writing that it's a “practice that grants course credit for student political protests and lobbying, almost invariably for leftist causes.”

 

In his letter in announcing his veto of SB 146, DeSantis wrote that the bill “seeks to further so-called ‘action civics’ but does so in a way that risks promoting the preferred orthodoxy of two particular institutions.”

 

“I don’t understand what that is,” says Brandes.

 

The bill would have created a “Citizen Scholar” program that would be headquartered at the USF St. Petersburg Center for Civic Engagement. It called for USFSP to contract with the YMCA to provide students participating in the Youth and Government Program the opportunity to earn undergraduate credit and the designation of “Citizen Scholar.’”

 

Diamond said that he had communicated with members of the governor’s staff who indicated that DeSantis intended to sign the bill, so he says he was startled to learn later that he was vetoing it.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LadySkinsFan]

DeSantis vetoed the bill to keep citizens ignorant and vulnerable to authoritarian propaganda.

[LD0506]

17 minutes ago, LadySkinsFan said:

DeSantis vetoed the bill to keep citizens ignorant and vulnerable to authoritarian propaganda.

 

He's not capable of that much thought, he's a sock puppet who just reflexively did what his owners told him to do.

[Larry]

An informed, active, population does not favor Republican interests.  

 

(And one of Republican interests, is altering society to promote Republican interests.)  

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Ball Security]

45 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

To be fair, it’s a Tennessee teacher requiring his students to read.  Doesn’t sound very inclusive to me.

[China]

South Dakota AG Claims His Crash Victim Wanted to Die

 

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg is claiming the man he ran over and killed—allegedly while scrolling through his phone on highway at night—wanted to die.

 

In court documents filed Friday, the state’s top lawman claimed victim Joe Boever was depressed and suicidal and may have thrown himself in front of his car as he drove home from a Republican function on Sept. 12.

 

Ravnsborg’s lawyer, Timothy J. Rensch, is seeking a court order that would force health-care providers to release Boever’s psychiatric or psychological records “for exculpatory information concerning his suicidal ideation.”

 

The filing quotes Boever’s cousin Barnabas Nemec as saying Boever “was an admitted alcoholic with a brooding depressive streak unparalleled by anyone else I have ever known.”

 

Nemec said that in December 2019, Boever told him if he did kill himself, he would do so by being struck by a vehicle.

 

“I believe with a very high degree of confidence Joe committed suicide by throwing himself into the path of a speeding car,” Nemec is quoted as saying.

 

Nemec’s brothers Nick and Victor dispute that. They told The Daily Beast that while Boever had suffered low periods before, he did not seem depressed at the time of his death.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

"Kid.  We found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of garbage.  I was wondering if you had any information about it."  

 

"Yes, sir, Officer Obie.  I cannot tell a lie.  I put that envelope under that pile of garbage."  

[tshile]

On 6/21/2021 at 10:53 AM, The Evil Genius said:

I'm admittedly liberal but also married no kids. I have mixed feelings about this and it makes me question why.

I’m more conservative than you, have two children, and think it’s dumb. 
 

I thought it was dumb when I thought I’d get nothing. Which was until the letter last week that explained we get a little (haven’t heard what the phase out was until I read your other post.) I still think it’s dumb. 
 

I’d rather that amount of money have been dumped into schools, before/after/pre-k care for certain families, and figuring out how to get a lot of kids better meals and healthcare. 
 

generally speaking I prefer we tackle something that’s prohibitively expensive for parents than just send checks. Especially to families that don’t need it. 

I also realize some actions are easier to do than others, and middle class families seem to get boned constantly, so whatever.

[gbear]

Tshile, I am with you.  I would rather the money have gone to solving some of the problems we, as a society, claim are too expensive to solve.  The before/after/pre-k care would have been a great place to apply the funds.  

 

Alas, I think that is like saying we should be spending btw 1/3 and 2/3 what we spend on foster care on providing resources to keep families together.   It makes too much sense to try and assess actual needs and root causes when there are political interests and easy messaging in play.

[COWBOY-KILLA-]

Nothing on Cuba?

[China]

The mayor’s race in this Michigan town includes a goat, chicken and cat

 

Mayor Sweet Tart McKee, the incumbent currently running for reelection in Omena, Mich., isn’t concerned about her competition this year.

 

But then again, Sweet Tart is a cat, so she’s not concerned about much of anything.

 

 

For more than a decade, the Northern Michigan hamlet of Omena — a small unincorporated community that does not have its own government — has held ceremonial elections for non-human mayors. The tongue-in-cheek triennial elections are fundraisers for the Omena Historical Society, with each dollar contributed to the organization equaling one vote. While all the critter candidates are from the community, anyone in the world can cast a ballot, in person or online, from now through July 23.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

‘Get A Grip’: Lindsey Graham Gets Smoked For Declaring He’d Go To War For Chick-Fil-A

 

Inspire an insurrection? Forgivable. Systemic racism? Not a problem. But if you criticize Chick-fil-A, you’d better watch out, because that’s the hill Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is willing to die on.

 

The senator devoted a tweet thread to defending the chicken sandwich chain on Wednesday after students at the University of Notre Dame wrote a letter opposing a proposed Chick-fil-A restaurant on its Indiana campus. Students at the Catholic college cited “ethical concerns” over the chain’s well-known anti-LGBTQ stance and donations to anti-LGBTQ causes.

 

Graham said it was “disappointing to hear some ND students and faculty want to ban Chick-fil-A from doing business on campus because they disagree with the values held by the Chick-fil-A founders.”

 

“I want everyone in South Carolina and across America to know I have Chick fil-A’s back,” he tweeted. “I hope we don’t have to, but I will go to war for the principles Chick fil-A stands for. Great food. Great service. Great values. God bless Chick fil-A!”

 

Critics online were stunned but not surprised.

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the link for more

 

I'd say Lindsey Graham can go eat a bag of dicks, but I'm pretty sure he's eaten plenty of dicks already.

[skinsmarydu]

CFA is a Georgia company.  Founded here, and anti-LGBTQ...straight up GA. 

 

Own your ****, Lindsey...those ****roaches that are the size of my feet that can fly. 

 

I can get rid of bugs.  I have to live in GA.  Everything's weird. 

[China]

'I wasn't really meaning to send a message,' says teen whose photo at Pennington County Fair sparked Republican backlash

 

Jacqueline Zaviska almost didn't submit the photo.

 

It was 6:30 p.m. on July 13, just 30 minutes before judging at the Pennington County Fair ended, and the 18-year-old was "in the Huck [Olson Arena] parking lot putting my entries together with tape and sharpies I had just bought at Walmart."

 

She went back and forth, whittling down her eight possibilities to four, and messaged her friend: Should she include the one of the burning Trump-Pence sign, striking orange flames against a black backdrop?

 

 

Her friend said yes, so in it went, ultimately earning a blue ribbon from the judges.

 

Then the criticism started. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Sheriffs’ letter pledges support of Second Amendment and other rights

 

The vast majority of county sheriffs in Washington have signed a new letter promising to uphold your constitutional rights. But it is up to the sheriffs to decide what is constitutional and what’s not.

 

It’s an anxious time for those who are worried about retaining their gun rights. An anxious time for those unhappy that COVID-19 safety rules may restrict individual freedoms.

 

Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett led the effort that got 37 of Washington’s 39 sheriffs to sign a letter pledging to abide by their oath of office.

 

“The message we want to send is one, is we want to minimize their fear, and we want to put them at ease,” he said.

 

In the letter, the sheriffs “publicly reassert our individual and collective duty to defend all of the constitutional rights of our citizens.”

 

But during the pandemic, some sheriffs have refused to enforce COVID-19 safety mandates.

 

And in the past few years, some sheriffs have publicly announced they won’t enforce newly passed gun safety laws.

 

The sheriffs’ letter explicitly calls out gun right, stating, “We individually and collectively pledge to do everything within our power to steadfastly protect the Second Amendment and all other individual rights.”

 

Burnett said constitutionality should be decided by the courts, but “there could be a time down the road where the sheriffs may have to decide as the chief law enforcement executives of their counties — that they would say this is what we are or we aren’t going to enforce.”

 

We spoke with constitutional lawyer Jeffery Needle about the letter. “It’s dangerous because it shows an extreme bias by the sheriffs of Washington state in favor of Second Amendment rights.”

 

Needle said the letter implies that sheriffs have power that the law does not give them.

 

“They don’t have some sort of unilateral power to determine which legislation is constitutional, which is not. And enforce only those that they believe are constitutional,” he added.

 

Click on the link for the full article