The Random Politics Thread

[TradeTheBeal!]

 

[Simmsy]

16 hours ago, TradeTheBeal! said:

 

 

Its only $399! Fake News!

[China]

Texas legislature has little appetite to fund Ken Paxton’s $3.3 million settlement with whistleblowers

 

Texas lawmakers are facing a choice: approve $3.3 million in state funds to end a lawsuit accusing Attorney General Ken Paxton of improperly firing four whistleblowers or reject an out-of-court settlement — potentially adding millions of dollars in costs while leaving the outcome of the lawsuit to fate in a long-shot attempt to make Paxton pay.

 

The multimillion-dollar settlement announced in February would resolve a 2-year-old lawsuit that alleges Paxton fired former high-ranking deputies in retaliation for accusing him of using his office to benefit a friend and political donor. The settlement would give the former employees back pay and several other concessions while ridding Paxton of one of several ongoing legal problems.

 

But in a blow to the former agency executives, lawmakers have shown little appetite to use state funds to help Paxton settle the case.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Nashville sues state over new council-slashing law

 

Just days after Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that will slash Nashville's council in half, the city has filed a lawsuit against the state claiming the law violates the Tennessee Constitution and the rights of Davidson County voters.

 

The new law requires city and metropolitan governments to cap their councils at 20 members. In practice, Metro Nashville's 40-member council is the only body in the state immediately impacted by the legislation. No other city or metropolitan government has a council larger than 20 members.

 

In the lawsuit, Metro argues the new statute dismantles the government established by voters when Davidson County and Nashville consolidated in the early 1960s, violating the home rule amendment of the Tennessee Constitution. "Home rule" bars the state from passing laws that impact only a particular county or city in its governmental capacity without local voter approval.

 

The lawsuit further states the statute's proposal to extend current council members' terms should Metro not meet a May 1 redistricting deadline violates a 1977 state constitution provision mandating four-year terms for county legislators. The same portion of the constitution also exempts Metro governments from a 25-member maximum for county legislative bodies — a clause Nashville attorneys say preempts state legislators' efforts to cap Metro council sizes.

 

Metro Nashville also filed a motion for injunction, imploring the court to temporarily halt the law's implementation to allow local elections in August to proceed as originally planned, with 40 council seats on the ballot.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[skinsmarydu]

 

Nicolle Wallace just said "Trump's reptilian survival instincts". 

Chop off his head and it'll grow right back.  I cannot stop laughing. 

[China]

On 2/28/2023 at 7:58 PM, China said:

 

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

 

U.S. Pushes for TikTok Sale to Resolve National Security Concerns

 

The Biden administration wants TikTok’s Chinese ownership to sell the app or face a possible ban, TikTok said on Wednesday, as the White House hardens its stance toward resolving national security concerns about the popular video service.

 

The new demand to sell the app was delivered to TikTok in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the matter said. TikTok is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance.

 

The move is a significant shift in the Biden administration’s position toward TikTok, which has been under scrutiny over fears that Beijing could request Americans’ data from the app. The White House had been trying to negotiate an agreement with TikTok that would apply new safeguards to its data and eliminate a need for ByteDance to sell its shares in the app.

 

But the demand for a sale — coupled with the White House’s support for legislation that would allow it to ban TikTok in the United States — hardens the administration’s approach. It harks back to the position of former President Donald J. Trump, who threatened to ban TikTok unless it was sold to an American company.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Oklahoma Bill Would Allow Removal of ANY Books That Contain Sex From Libraries, Right Down To Your Regency Faves

 

Republicans complain about “woke” culture taking over America while they keep trying to restrict everyone’s freedoms. One of the GOP’s most tired platform points is a complaint about “big government”—the goal being to limit the government’s control in the personal lives of Americans. Now, however, they are introducing a never-ending slew of bills to limit everything people can do.

 

In Arkansas, they are dictating where people can pee while also loosening child labor laws (because that’s an obvious sign of a well-functioning society). They won’t stay out of our uteruses or our group chats. Then, there’s just everything going on in Florida. Keeping up with the fascist levels of control, Republicans in Oklahoma introduced a bill that will limit access to books that are deemed too sexual, even for adults over the age of 18.

 

The language of the bill outlines the creation of a rating system for all libraries (yes, both school AND public libraries), ostensibly so that innocent children won’t accidentally read anything too sexy.

 

Rating groups would be “elementary,” “junior high,” “under 16,” and “juniors and seniors.” All libraries would be required to review and catalog their inventory to fit the new system. I guess current library structures where helpful librarians will guide children to age-appropriate books that are cataloged by reading level and subject aren’t puritanical enough. If any child wants to read something over their age rating, the bill would require them to get written parental consent, meaning if a child had a legitimate interest or questions about things outside of their rating level, their parents must approve.

 

One of the last clauses states, “No print or nonprint material or media in a school district library, charter school library, or public library shall include content that the average person eighteen (18) or older applying contemporary community standards would find has a predominant tendency to appeal to prurient interest in sex.”

 

That means they can remove any books that are too focused on sex from public libraries, even if you are a legal adult. There is no mention of what the barometer for too sexy would be, outside of the “average person” and “contemporary community standards”—and we all know whose standards they’re talking about. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

So then they'll be removing the bible, right?

[China]

On 6/20/2021 at 6:02 PM, China said:

 

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

 

Partisan rancor in Oregon spills over into Idaho effort to absorb its rural neighbors

 

Matt McCaw cringes if you say the word “secessionist” around him.

 

A native of eastern Oregon, McCaw is a mild-mannered, former high school math teacher who fosters children to help his community.

 

“We don’t think of ourselves as a secessionist movement. We see ourselves as a self-determination movement,” McCaw said of the Greater Idaho Movement, which seeks to move the Idaho state line west to include more than half of Oregon.

 

What would have previously been brushed off as a fringe proposition to add the predominantly Republican region of eastern Oregon into conservative Idaho has lunged forward in the Idaho state legislature. There have been plenty of other attempts across the country to break off pieces of states to try to join more politically analogous ones, but this one has advanced the furthest. The measure passed the state House last month and advanced to the state Senate, where it sits in committee, with the session expected to wrap by the end of March.

 

Critics see such efforts as a symptom of a bigger problem facing the US post Covid-19 pandemic – unprecedented hostility toward those who don’t share the same politics.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 3/15/2023 at 10:39 PM, China said:

 

U.S. Pushes for TikTok Sale to Resolve National Security Concerns

 

The Biden administration wants TikTok’s Chinese ownership to sell the app or face a possible ban, TikTok said on Wednesday, as the White House hardens its stance toward resolving national security concerns about the popular video service.

 

The new demand to sell the app was delivered to TikTok in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the matter said. TikTok is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance.

 

The move is a significant shift in the Biden administration’s position toward TikTok, which has been under scrutiny over fears that Beijing could request Americans’ data from the app. The White House had been trying to negotiate an agreement with TikTok that would apply new safeguards to its data and eliminate a need for ByteDance to sell its shares in the app.

 

But the demand for a sale — coupled with the White House’s support for legislation that would allow it to ban TikTok in the United States — hardens the administration’s approach. It harks back to the position of former President Donald J. Trump, who threatened to ban TikTok unless it was sold to an American company.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Justice Dept. Investigating TikTok’s Owner Over Possible Spying on Journalists

 

The Justice Department is investigating the surveillance of American citizens, including several journalists who cover the tech industry, by the Chinese company that owns TikTok, according to three people familiar with the matter.

 

The investigation, which began late last year, appears to be tied to the admission in December by the company, ByteDance, that its employees had inappropriately obtained the data of American TikTok users, including that of two reporters and a few of their associates.

 

The department’s criminal division, the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia are investigating ByteDance, which is based in Beijing and has close ties with China’s government, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

I saw that and thought about posting it.  The Reagan win was such a landslide I don't think that was the only factor.  The economy was a major issue at that time as well.

[Captain Wiggles]

Wait wasn't this information known long ago? I know I've seen documentaries from decades ago about how Reagans team worked to keep the hostages there longer to **** over the Carter administration's negotiations. I want to say Ross Perot even said as much. He'd  a known since he's the one what got em out.

[tshile]

The grift on the 400$ trump book about letters to trump is all those people that wrote letters to trump that spend 400$ to find out their letter didn’t make the book 

[Larry]

My problem with the notion that Reagan persuaded the Ayatollah to keep American hostages, so he could win the election, has to do with timing.  

 

See, the hypothesis being proposed here is that . . . 

 

Reagan convinced the Ayatollah to keep the hostages.  

At a time when Reagan has no power at all to deliver on any promises at all.  

He has to convince the Ayatollah to do what he wants, in exchange for nothing but some vague promise of a future payoff.  

And, both he and the Ayatollah know that this deal can never me bade public.  Both of their populations would revolt, if it gets out.  

And then the Ayatollah has to trust that he will get his payoff, after he has helped elect a POTUS who is running on what a tough guy he's going to be, to Iran.  

 

He has to convince the Ayatollah that things will be better for the Ayatollah, under some imaginary future Reagan, than he is under the known quantity of Jimmy Carter.  

 

I have trouble believing that that's possible.  

 

[China]

 

[China]

On 3/16/2023 at 11:13 AM, China said:

Oklahoma Bill Would Allow Removal of ANY Books That Contain Sex From Libraries, Right Down To Your Regency Faves

 

Republicans complain about “woke” culture taking over America while they keep trying to restrict everyone’s freedoms. One of the GOP’s most tired platform points is a complaint about “big government”—the goal being to limit the government’s control in the personal lives of Americans. Now, however, they are introducing a never-ending slew of bills to limit everything people can do.

 

In Arkansas, they are dictating where people can pee while also loosening child labor laws (because that’s an obvious sign of a well-functioning society). They won’t stay out of our uteruses or our group chats. Then, there’s just everything going on in Florida. Keeping up with the fascist levels of control, Republicans in Oklahoma introduced a bill that will limit access to books that are deemed too sexual, even for adults over the age of 18.

 

The language of the bill outlines the creation of a rating system for all libraries (yes, both school AND public libraries), ostensibly so that innocent children won’t accidentally read anything too sexy.

 

Rating groups would be “elementary,” “junior high,” “under 16,” and “juniors and seniors.” All libraries would be required to review and catalog their inventory to fit the new system. I guess current library structures where helpful librarians will guide children to age-appropriate books that are cataloged by reading level and subject aren’t puritanical enough. If any child wants to read something over their age rating, the bill would require them to get written parental consent, meaning if a child had a legitimate interest or questions about things outside of their rating level, their parents must approve.

 

One of the last clauses states, “No print or nonprint material or media in a school district library, charter school library, or public library shall include content that the average person eighteen (18) or older applying contemporary community standards would find has a predominant tendency to appeal to prurient interest in sex.”

 

That means they can remove any books that are too focused on sex from public libraries, even if you are a legal adult. There is no mention of what the barometer for too sexy would be, outside of the “average person” and “contemporary community standards”—and we all know whose standards they’re talking about. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

So then they'll be removing the bible, right?

 

In Utah:

 

Somebody wants the Bible removed from Davis County school libraries

 

Someone wants the Bible removed from libraries in the Davis School District.

 

On Dec. 11, 2022, a challenge was filed with district officials asking that the Bible be pulled from the shelves of the district’s schools.

 

The school district doesn’t reveal who challenges books, nor does it ask why.

 

Asked if it was a serious attempt to have the Bible removed from school libraries or if it was a political statement, Christopher Williams, Davis School District’s director of communication, said they treat all challenges the same.

 

“The district doesn’t judge one challenge versus another,” he said in an email response. “We view it as part of the work we do.”

 

A random check of school districts revealed that they, too, have an array of religious texts in their school libraries such as the Bible, Quran, Torah, the Book of Mormon and the Hindu text Bhagavad Gita, but none reported they had been challenged.

 

Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley said the district received an inquiry about religious texts in its schools but the person did not file a formal request that the district review them.

 

Since the passage of Utah’s “sensitive materials” law in 2022, Utah school districts such as Alpine, Granite and Davis have received dozens of other requests for book reviews, some spurred by parents rights organizations such as Utah Parents United and others from concerned individuals.

 

HB374, sponsored by Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, defines “sensitive material” as instructional materials that are pornographic or indecent, colloquially referred to as the “bright line” rule in state code.

 

Ivory said the challenge of the Bible is “a backhanded slap to parents that are simply trying to keep a healthy learning environment for all students in the schools. I have every confidence that no school district is going to consider the Bible as violating 76-10-1227,” which addresses descriptions and depictions of illicit sex or sexual immorality.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

7 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

I had too look up what bill this tweet was referencing.  Apparently it's a bill about ****fighting:

 

The quote says "No person has ever died from a chicken fight."  That's not strictly true.  Maybe it hasn't happened in the US, but it has happened.

[China]

 

[China]

Take Our Quiz to Find Out What Level of Authoritarianism Is Right for You

 

It’s decorative palm-frond season, ****es, and that means it’s the season of taking stock, cleaning house, renewal, and repair. And for a lot of us, that means it’s time to think seriously about which relationships in our lives are lifting us up and which are dragging us down. Let’s be honest: Just because your relationship with constitutional democracy can feel cozy and safe, that doesn’t mean that it’s still serving you, right? And how can you really be sure that autocracy, theocracy, dictatorship, or rule by military junta isn’t actually a better fit for you? It’s surely better to be honest about your geopolitical wants and needs than to suffer along with the status quo, amirite?

 

So, here’s a little quiz that might help you figure out whether you’re ready to move on from your current toxic relationship with representative democracy, constitutional checks and balances, and the rule of law. You can take it in secret—or, better yet, take it next to your copy of the Constitution. And if turns out that law and democracy are no longer sparking joy for you, awesome: Just toss ’em and call it spring cleaning. Let’s get started.

 

Click on the link for the quiz

[China]

'Last night has become a story': Broken Arrow Rep. arrested for public intoxication

 

Oklahoma City police arrested Rep. Dean Davis, R-Broken Arrow, for public intoxication early Thursday morning.

 

Police said Davis tried to show officers a credential and made a statement to the effect of, "You don't know how bad you messed up. You will find out tomorrow."

 

This is not Davis' first run-in with the law, having been arrested back in 2019 for driving under the influence. Davis was sentenced in 2022 to a six-month deferred sentence, which he completed on March 3, 2023.

 

Oklahoma Democrats are calling for Republican lawmakers to be held accountable.

 

Two other House Republicans have also gotten in trouble with the law: Ryan Martinez and Terry O'Donnell.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

Read this please.....

 

 

[Cooked Crack]