The Random Politics Thread

[China]

Mississippi House OKs new court system — to be appointed by white state officials — for second-Blackest U.S. city, stoking tension

 

The Mississippi House has approved the creation of a new court system in which judges and prosecutors would be appointed by state officials — who all happen to be white — for the capital of Jackson, which has the second-highest percentage of Black residents among U.S. cities.

 

The bill proposing the new court, which needs approval from the state Senate and governor to become law, was overwhelmingly passed Tuesday by a supermajority of white Republican legislators after intense opposition by Black Democratic legislators, news outlets reported.

 

The change would be a break from the rest of the state, where judges and prosecutors are elected by voters.

 

If approved by the state Senate and governor, the court system and its judges would preside over a so-called improvement district spanning Jackson’s downtown and shopping and entertainment areas.

 

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who — like 80% of city residents — is Black, reportedly said, “It reminds me of apartheid,” after watching the debate from the House gallery.

 

If the new Jackson court system is approved by the Senate and governor, its judges and clerk would be appointed by the state Supreme Court’s chief justice, who is white.

 

And prosecutors would be named by the state attorney general, who also is white.

 

Rep. Ed Blackmon, a Democratic lawmaker and civil rights leader who opposed the measure and is Black, said, “Only in Mississippi would we have a bill like this … where we say solving the problem requires removing the vote from Black people,” the outlet reported.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

USDA NOW OBSCURES THE NAMES OF SOME FARM SUBSIDY RECIPIENTS

 

After decades of releasing the names of everyone who receives farm subsidy payments, the USDA has changed course, hiding the names of a portion of farm subsidy recipients. An advocacy group that publishes the data says that the decision to withhold recipient names obscures how billions of dollars of taxpayer money is spent.

 

“It’s a mystery as to why the USDA began to hide the names of many recipients,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs for the Environment Working Group (EWG), which files a Freedom of Information Request every year to obtain information about who receives farm subsidies, where the recipients live and how much they get. That information then goes into a public database that dates back to 1995. The most recent version, which contains data from 2020 and 2021, was released Wednesday.

 

This year, for the first time, the USDA elected to withhold the names of some recipients and instead released only the names of the lending institutions that funneled the money to those individuals. An EWG analysis shows that the agency obscured about 6% of farm subsidy recipients’ names. While that percentage may sound low, they collectively received $3.1 billion — which is about one-fifth of the USDA’s average annual farm subsidy budget between 2015 and 2019.

 

Because of the recent change, Faber said, “policymakers and others are now unable to determine whether or not our farm safety net is serving farmers who are on the verge of economic ruin or is enriching large commercial operators.”

 

Faber said the agency told them the changes occurred because of a software update to its reporting system in 2019, during the Trump administration. The USDA has denied the nonprofit’s appeals requesting the names of the obscured individuals.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Spaceman Spiff]

https://www.investors.com/news/norfolk-southern-stock-drops-as-hazardous-ohio-rail-disaster-continues/

 

Quote

Two weeks ago, a Norfolk Southern 150-rail car train, transporting hazardous materials, derailed in flames while passing through the eastern Ohio town of East Palestine. Cleanup crews ordered residents to evacuate the area as officials decided last week to perform a "controlled" release of hazardous chemicals instead of risking a larger explosion.

Five of the derailed cars in East Palestine were carrying the chemical vinyl chloride, a type of gas. Exposure to vinyl chloride is associated with certain forms of cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

However, state environmental regulators said harmful levels had not been detected in East Palestine, according to local media reports. Officials lifted the evacuation order on Feb. 8, but many residents remain uncertain about returning to their homes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wrote Friday hazardous materials are "known to have been and continue to be released to the air, surface soils and surface waters."

"I've watched every news conference and I haven't heard anything that makes me think that this is a data-driven decision," resident Maura Todd, 44, told the Washington Post. "We don't feel like we have a whole lot of information."

 

Yeah, I wouldn't be racing back to my home.  

 

https://www.wfmj.com/story/48365262/norfolk-southern-to-notify-some-residents-of-at-risk-drinking-water-in-east-palestine

 

Quote

Norfolk Southern to notify some residents of 'at risk' drinking water in East Palestine

 

Gee, ya think?

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Reporter's dismissal exposes political pressures on West Virginia Public Broadcasting

 

Late last fall, West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Amelia Ferrell Knisely reported one story after another about allegations that people with disabilities were abused in facilities run by the state.

 

The state agency Knisely was covering demanded that one of her key stories be fully retracted. While her coverage remains on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's website, Knisely is gone. She says she was told the decision came from the station's chief executive.

 

Interviews with 20 people with direct knowledge of events at West Virginia Public Broadcasting indicate Knisely's involuntary departure from her position as a part-time reporter was not an aberration but part of a years-long pattern of mounting pressure on the station from Gov. Jim Justice's administration and some state legislators.

 

"We all knew that our jobs could go at any moment if politicians fought that hard enough," says former West Virginia Public Broadcasting reporter and producer Roxy Todd. "Gov. Justice's presence was always looming over us."

 

Since 2017, politicians have sought to eliminate state funding. The governor appointed partisans hostile to public broadcasting to key oversight positions. And the station's chief executive has intervened repeatedly in journalistic decisions.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Ronald DeSantis Is Leading Florida to Freedom, One Ban at a Time

 

reedom means the government bans something new every day. Just ask the newest rising star in the Party of Small Government—at least according to very savvy politico types—Florida Governor Ronald DeSantis. He cut his teeth as a national figure by styling his state as the last bastion of human freedom in the United States during the pandemic, a place where the government wouldn't make you do anything ever. But DeSantis is almost inevitably going to run for president, and now that the pandemic is finished as a public policy issue, he needs some grand public gestures to get him into the news cycle and onto the Fox News airwaves on a regular basis. It's certainly more fun than talking about his record on Medicare and Social Security. Enter the bans.

 

Below, you'll find a list of things whose banning the Florida governor championed or carried out directly. As you reach a new subject, remember that you've taken another stride towards true freedom.

 

Books
PEN America compiled a list of 176 books that were removed from classrooms in Duval County, Florida, last year because they fell afoul of new laws passed by the Florida legislature and signed by DeSantis. ABC News reports that upwards of 1 million books are now under review in that jurisdiction, home to Jacksonville.

 

Teaching About How Gay People Exist
The laws above have also had an impact on what teachers believe they can say in the classroom. A key provision of the Parental Rights in Education statute, which critics have called "Don't Say Gay," is the following: "Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."

 

AP African American Studies—No, All AP Courses?
DeSantis has sought to ban AP African American Studies, claiming that the course lacked "educational value" because among the curriculum's 100-plus units, a few focused on queer theory or the prison abolition movement. (State officials have also claimed the course is historically inaccurate and violates a state law on how race issues are taught in schools.) 

 

Teaching About Privilege and Oppression
The Stop W.O.K.E. Act focuses on the notion that teachers are teaching white kids that they're inherently evil racists and Black students that they're morally superior to their white counterparts. It outlaws this supposedly widespread behavior, but also includes a ban on teaching that "a person’s moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, national origin, or sex."

 

DEI Training
The Stop W.O.K.E. Act also applies to public and private employers who want to train their employees in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Again, your mileage may vary on the effectiveness of these programs, but the government stepping in to ban private firms from training their employees in a certain way—particularly when it could inform how they interact with customers—would be blasted as insane government overreach if the idea came from Democrats. A federal judge has blocked this provision on free speech grounds.

 

ESG Investing
"ESG" stands for environmental, social, and governance—essentially, investment strategies that take into account social and environmental impact.

This is part of an extended campaign: "No investment decisions at the state or local government with ESG," he said, "no use of ESG in procurement and contracting, and no use of ESG when issuing local or state bonds."

 

Tenure
DeSantis would be quick to insist he has not pushed to get rid of tenure at public colleges and universities, only for tenured professors to come under "review" every five years. He's since pushed for more frequent reviews, to be carried out by institutional boards appointed by...Ronald DeSantis. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[China]

DA says masking for anonymity at public meetings is illegal, but NHCSO won’t unmask the Proud Boys

 

Members of the Proud Boys who show up to public meetings on government property in their trademark masks, designed to grant them anonymity, are violating state law.

 

That’s the guidance District Attorney Ben David provided to New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon in a letter on Wednesday. David wrote the letter after McMahon called him Tuesday evening, asking for counsel on the issue.

 

David said he consulted senior prosecutors and experts in the field at the UNC School of Government and then rendered his opinion to McMahon. In short, David’s office found that a 1953 state law aimed at curbing the domestic terrorism of the Klu Klux Klan still makes it illegal for people to conceal their identity on government property in 2023. That law doesn’t apply to medical masks, however, thanks to a different law passed early in the pandemic.

 

“Free and open debate requires transparency. The law is intended to remove the cloak of anonymity from those who choose to engage in the public square,” David wrote in an email to WHQR, sharing his letter to McMahon (you can find the letter at the end of the article).

 

The letter notes the spirit of the law — in 1953 and now — is to avoid the effect of intimidation on the public.

 

“[T]he public policy behind this statute is intended to vindicate the rights of citizens who would be present at a public meeting but for the intimidating presence of those in violation of [the law],” according to the letter.

 

And, according to New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office (NHCSO) spokesperson Lt. Jerry Brewer, David’s letter does not change deputies’ hands-off policy towards the Proud Boys.

 

On Tuesday morning, prior to McMahon’s call to David, Brewer told WHQR, “it’s all or nothing,” meaning in the eyes of NHCSO, deputies would either have to remove everyone’s masks — regardless of the reason they were being worn — or allow everyone’s masks. The same logic would apply to tinted sunglasses, Brewer said, noting that Proud Boys could argue they were wearing them for medical reasons, just as they could argue their masks were for public health reasons.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Russia has windows, China has the abyss:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/17/investing/china-renaissance-ceo-bao-fan-missing-intl-hnk/index.html

 

Bao’s disappearance follows those of other high-profile business leaders in China, where it is not uncommon for executives to suddenly drop off the radar with little explanation.

In 2020, real estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang disappeared for several months after he allegedly spoke out against Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Ren was eventually jailed for 18 years on corruption charges.

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

James O’Keefe Resigns From Project Veritas After Employee Complaints

 

Right-wing activist James O’Keefe resigned Monday morning from his position leading Project Veritas, the conservative group he founded, after clashing for weeks with his board.

 

In a video to Project Veritas employees, O’Keefe promised to start a new, rival organization doing similar undercover activist work.

 

O’Keefe, who became a star on the right by targeting journalists and liberal groups in hidden-camera stings, was placed on paid leave earlier this month amid a dispute with the nonprofit’s board. The board reversed O’Keefe’s firing of two top executives, and received a lengthy memo from unhappy employees detailing O’Keefe’s allegedly “outright cruel” conduct.

 

A video of O’Keefe announcing his exit was posted to the video website Vimeo. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

This sounds like something that might end up in the Supreme Court if passed:

 

FIRE statement: Florida bill attacking NYT v. Sullivan would ‘spell disaster’ for free speech

 

UPDATE: Shortly after the publication of this statement, Rep. Andrade withdrew HB 951 and introduced an even worse bill, HB 991, in its place. 

 

HB 991 exacerbates the threats to freedom of expression presented by HB 951. For example, with regard to anonymous sources, HB 991 does not simply presume that statements from anonymous sources are false, as in HB 951. Instead, HB 991 retains that presumption, but also goes further: When the journalist or media outlet refuses to identify an anonymous source, plaintiffs bringing a defamation claim need to prove only that statements from anonymous sources were published negligently, not with actual malice.

 

Yesterday, Florida state legislator Rep. Alex Andrade introduced HB 951, a bill that seeks to roll back the protections for free speech secured by one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the last six decades: New York Times Company v. Sullivan. 

 

Click on the link for the full statement

[China]

This group gets left-leaning policies passed in red states. How? Ballot measures

 

One side effect of political division in the states — blue states getting bluer and red states getting redder — is that some policies don't have a chance of getting passed by partisan state legislatures, even if a majority of voters back them.

 

But a left-leaning advocacy group called the Fairness Project has created a playbook for using ballot initiatives to go around GOP-led state legislatures.

 

Since 2016, it has backed successful initiatives to raise the minimum wage and expand Medicaid in at least nine states run entirely or mostly by Republicans at the time of the vote. (It also works in Democratically led states.)

 

Now, it's one of several groups gearing up to put abortion rights on the ballot in 2024. But the recent success of such measures in Republican-led states has drawn criticism from lawmakers and helped fuel a raft of attempts to curb ballot measures.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Captain Wiggles]

I'm all in favor of ballot measures. It's about the closet thing we get to direct democracy in Murica. Unfortunately I live in NC and to even get a ballot measure approved to vote on requires 60% of approval from both legislative chambers. Not an easy task. 

[PokerPacker]

53 minutes ago, Captain Wiggles said:

I'm all in favor of ballot measures. It's about the closet thing we get to direct democracy in Murica. Unfortunately I live in NC and to even get a ballot measure approved to vote on requires 60% of approval from both legislative chambers. Not an easy task. 

At which point they could have just passed a law.

[China]

Nebraska Dem Just Gonna Filibuster Eeeeeeeeverything

 

There is very little I enjoy more than women insisting upon taking up space in this world — largely because it drives all of the worst people in it completely bananas. There is a special kind of indescribable rage that comes out of people when they are angry about a woman they believe is "seeking attention," which is of course the most evil, Jezebellian sin a lady can commit outside of having a painted face. In fact, the plot of the movie Jezebel hinged on an entire community of people being more scandalized by Bette Davis wearing a red dress to a party than the fact that they were literally in the midst of fighting a war to own people.

 

As such, I am thrilled and delighted by Nebraska state Senator Machaela Cavanaugh and her vow to annoy the absolute **** out of her Republican colleagues by filibustering every single goddamned bill they try to pass this year unless they withdraw a pair of bills aimed at banning abortion and gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.

 

“If this legislature collectively decides that legislating hate against children is our priority, then I am going to make it painful; painful for everyone,” Cavanaugh said Thursday at the state capitol in Lincoln. “Because if you want to inflict pain upon our children, I am going to inflict pain upon this body.”

 

 

“I have nothing, nothing but time. And I am going to use all of it," she said. "You cannot stop me. I will not be stopped. If LB574 gets an early floor debate and moves forward, it will be very painful for this body. And if people are like, ‘Is she threatening us?’ Let me be clear: Yes, I am threatening you."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Texas asks a Trump judge to declare most of the federal government unconstitutional

 

Earlier this month, Texas’s Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit claiming that the $1.7 trillion spending law that keeps most of the federal government — including the US military — operating through September of 2023 is unconstitutional.

 

Paxton’s claims in Texas v. Garland, which turn on the fact that many of the lawmakers who voted for the bill voted by proxy, should fail. They are at odds with the Constitution’s explicit text. And a bipartisan panel of a powerful federal appeals court in Washington, DC, already rejected a similar lawsuit in 2021.

 

Realistically, this lawsuit is unlikely to prevail even in the current, highly conservative Supreme Court. Declaring a law that funds most of the federal government unconstitutional would be an extraordinary act, especially given the very strong legal arguments against Paxton’s position.

 

But the case is a window into Paxton’s broader litigation strategy, where he frequently raises weak legal arguments undercutting federal policies before right-wing judges that he has personally chosen because of their ideology. And these judges often do sow chaos throughout the government, which can last months or longer, before a higher court steps in.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[China]

South Carolina lawmaker proposes ‘Yankee tax’ as northerners flock to state in droves

 

South Carolina state Senator Stephen Goldfinch proposed a bill, dubbed the “Yankee tax,” that would require new residents to pay up to $500 to move to the Palmetto State. 

 

If passed by state referendum, new residents moving from out-of-state to South Carolina would be required to pay two one-time fees, $250 for new driver’s licenses and $250 for vehicle registrations.

 

Sen. Goldfinch shared with Fox News Digital that the proposal is not trying to stop people from coming from out of state, just for new residents to “catch up with the rest of us.”

“I’m not trying to build a wall and this is not a fee against new residents it’s a fee for people to catch up with the rest of us,” Goldfinch told Fox News Digital. 

 

The money raised from the additional $250 tax would go towards the state’s infrastructure including roads, bridges, and common community spaces. 

 

“I think there’s a rational basis for requiring newcomers to catch up with the rest of us and contribute to the roads, bridges, schools and green spaces that we’ve [residents] always contributed to,” Goldfinch shared with Fox News Digital.

 

His proposal comes after droves of people from the northeast have moved down to South Carolina in recent years. According to the U.S. Census, nearly half a million people moved to the Palmetto state in the past decade.

 

People flocked to the southeast during the pandemic and stayed due to a host of reason including work flexibility, lower taxes, and warmer weather. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Larry]

So, did the Mayans invent the Garden gnome?  

[China]

On 12/13/2022 at 10:38 PM, China said:

Lawmakers Intro Bill to Ban TikTok in U.S.

 

TikTok poses a national security threat, according to lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.
 

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL., on Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation that would ban the popular app TikTok from operating within the United States over national security concerns.

Rubio’s bill—the Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party, or ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act—already has bipartisan support in the House, with Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., authoring companion legislation. 

 

“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok,” Rubio said in a statement. “This isn’t about creative videos—this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day. We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good.”

 

TikTok is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance. Numerous federal officials, including FBI Director Chris Wray, have testified that the Chinese Communist Party has authority over all Chinese companies, which “allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”

 

“At a time when the Chinese Communist Party and our other adversaries abroad are seeking any advantage they can find against the United States through espionage and mass surveillance, it is imperative that we do not allow hostile powers to potentially control social media networks that could be easily weaponized against us,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement..

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

White House to Federal Employees: You Have 30 Days to Delete TikTok

 

In a move to cut government employees from accessing TikTok on government-issued devices, the White House told federal agencies yesterday that they have 30 days to remove the app from government-issued devices. The TikTok ban comes as the U.S. government grows weary about security concerns the app may pose, such as TikTok tracking user location data.

 

Reuters broke the news of the directive, which came from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young in a memorandum. The memorandum reportedly makes an exception for any national security or law enforcement research efforts being conducted on the app, but those plans must be approved in advance by the respective agency. The memo further states that after 90 days, any federal agency still using TikTok must address why.

 

Canada announced a similar federal ban of TikTok yesterday, effective today and applying to all government-issued devices. The Canadian government is citing TikTok’s risk to user privacy as motivation for the ban.

 

“The ban of TikTok on federal devices was passed in December without any deliberation, and unfortunately that approach has served as a blueprint for other world governments. These bans are little more than political theater,” a TikTok spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email this morning. “We hope that when it comes to addressing national security concerns about TikTok beyond government devices, Congress will explore solutions that won’t have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

Admiring the way the government is all horrified and concerned, about TikTok collecting personal data about users.  

 

Want to show me how concerned you all are about privacy?  Pass a law making it illegal for anybody to collect personal data on their users.  And watch the privacy invasion industry **** their diapers.  

 

For example, prohibit my grocery store from using my credit card number for anything other than processing my purchase.  

[China]

On 12/13/2022 at 10:38 PM, China said:

Lawmakers Intro Bill to Ban TikTok in U.S.

 

TikTok poses a national security threat, according to lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.
 

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL., on Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation that would ban the popular app TikTok from operating within the United States over national security concerns.

Rubio’s bill—the Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party, or ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act—already has bipartisan support in the House, with Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., authoring companion legislation. 

 

“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok,” Rubio said in a statement. “This isn’t about creative videos—this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day. We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good.”

 

TikTok is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance. Numerous federal officials, including FBI Director Chris Wray, have testified that the Chinese Communist Party has authority over all Chinese companies, which “allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”

 

“At a time when the Chinese Communist Party and our other adversaries abroad are seeking any advantage they can find against the United States through espionage and mass surveillance, it is imperative that we do not allow hostile powers to potentially control social media networks that could be easily weaponized against us,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement..

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

Republican Bill That Gives Biden Power to Completely Ban TikTok Passes House Committee Super Fast

 

A fast-tracked, vague Republican bill granting the Biden administration the ability to impose a nationwide TikTok ban moved a step closer toward legality on Tuesday after passing a vote in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The sweeping new legislation, if passed into law, would grant the Biden administration the ability to totally ban TikTok or other foreign software companies believed to be involved in the transfer of “sensitive data.” Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say the slipshod bill, introduced just five days ago, was haphazardly written and could potentially open scores of other benign apps up to potential bans.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Califan007 The Constipated]

 

 

[TheGreatBuzz]

Moved to right thread.

Edited March 1, 2023 by TheGreatBuzz

[China]

1 minute ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

What thread should this go in?

 

 

 

Probably most closely aligned with this: