Category: Politics

everything to do with the execution of politics

A Change For SCOTUS?

The referee of this republic is the Supreme Court…..they interpret and set laws for the nation. As it is today it is where ideologues go to push a certain set of principles….no longer are these 9 judges an independent and impartial umpire for the laws of this country.

There has been a movement for the expansion of the court from 9 judges to 13. The Dems are offering up this bill…but will it ever see the light of day?

President Biden signed an executive order to set up a commission dedicated to studying possible reforms to the Supreme Court, including an increase in the number of justices on the bench. Congressional Democrats, however, aren’t waiting for the results of the panel’s report due out in six months, instead moving to introduce legislation Thursday on expansion of the court. The bill, led by Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Jerry Nadler, proposes upping the number of Supreme Court justices from nine to 13—a move that can only be carried out via an act of Congress. The legislation is a reaction to what NBC News calls “an undercurrent of progressive fury” after then-President Obama nominated Merrick Garland in March 2016 to fill Antonin Scalia’s spot after the latter had died, and Mitch McConnell, then the GOP Senate majority leader, denied a vote on Garland.

McConnell’s reasoning: It was an election year, and he felt the incoming president should be the one to fill Scalia’s slot, which Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch eventually took. Democrats’ anger was further stoked when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September and the GOP swept Amy Coney Barrett onto the bench just days before the 2020 election. “This bill marks a new era where Democrats finally stop conceding the Supreme Court to Republicans,” political activist Brian Fallon says, per NBC News. The Intercept notes that the number of seats on the court bounced around earlier on in US history, going up to 10 before falling back to nine in 1869, where it’s stayed since. NBC and Vox note the bill is unlikely to become law in the near future, with the GOP pushing back hard against it as a radical move. Biden himself has wavered on fully supporting such an expansion, though he hopes to receive some clarity from his newly formed commission.

Personally I do not see how the rise to 13 would change anything at all on the court.  And yes I have an idea on this as well and I let my thoughts be known here on IST……https://lobotero.com/2020/09/25/i-have-lots-to-say-about-scotus/

But none of these changes will occur,,,,the Senate will make sure that nothing is done to change the make-up of the Supreme Court.

While change needs to happen with SCOTUS but this bill will not change anything but the number of judges…..the partisan BS will continue.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Chamber Of Commerce Voter Suppression

There has been a wealth of citizens that have come out in favor of the voting rights bill in Congress, HR1, and yet as popular as it may be the corporations are in opposition…..but why would they care?

The Chamber of Commerce has issued a strong letter of opposition…..

This is the letter the Chamber has issued…..these are the points that they take exception with….

There are many other aspects of H.R. 1 that are extremely problematic. To highlight just a few:

  • H.R. 1 would fundamentally transform the FEC from a non-partisan agency comprised of three commissioners from each party into an overtly partisan enforcement tool controlled by a majority of commissioners from the political party then in power.
  • H.R. 1 would deem communication by corporations, including associations, to be “coordinated” and thereby prohibited if the organization has even the most innocuous and tenuous of connections with a candidate. For example, a meeting with an elected official to discuss a policy issue, an organizational employee who was previously employed by the elected official or candidate in any capacity, or a common vendor with a candidate would all have the practical effect of prohibiting corporations, including associations, from engaging in the political process.
  • H.R. 1 would also usher in a host of onerous disclaimer requirements for those engaging in communications that mention a candidate or elected official, even if those communications are related to legislative issues.
  • H.R. 1 would give taxpayer funds to political campaigns by allowing Americans to opt-into having their political donations matched by the federal government. Taxpayer money should be used to support projects like infrastructure initiatives and education programs and not political campaigns.

https://www.uschamber.com/letters-congress/us-chamber-key-vote-letter-opposing-hr-1-the-people-act

HR1 includes these points…..

This bill addresses voter access, election integrity and security, campaign finance, and ethics for the three branches of government.

Specifically, the bill expands voter registration (e.g., automatic and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early voting). It also limits removing voters from voter rolls.

The bill requires states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting.

Additionally, the bill sets forth provisions related to election security, including sharing intelligence information with state election officials, supporting states in securing their election systems, developing a national strategy to protect U.S. democratic institutions, establishing in the legislative branch the National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions, and other provisions to improve the cybersecurity of election systems.

Further, the bill addresses campaign finance, including by expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring additional disclosure of campaign-related fundraising and spending, requiring additional disclaimers regarding certain political advertising, and establishing an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal offices.

The bill addresses ethics in all three branches of government, including by requiring a code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices, prohibiting Members of the House from serving on the board of a for-profit entity, and establishing additional conflict-of-interest and ethics provisions for federal employees and the White House.

The bill requires the President, the Vice President, and certain candidates for those offices to disclose 10 years of tax returns.

If you are a political geek and would like to read the bill for yourself before you comment then here is the pdf for you to read…..all 791 pages!

Click to access BILLS-117hr1ih.pdf

Interesting that the most opposition comes from corporate America and its paid goons in Congress.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

From The ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’ Files

By now we all have heard of the attempts to suppress the vote in many Red States…..Georgia has one of the most restrictive….it even includes a portion that bans anyone from giving food or water to people waiting in the hot Southern sun…..

But wait the Georgia governor has made another ‘stupid’ statement about this portion of the restrict state law……

The GOP governor then responded to criticism of the law’s provision limiting the distribution of food and water at polling stations, confirming that polling centers can still provide refreshments and that people can bring their own food and water with them.

“They can order a pizza. They can order Grubhub or Uber Eats. The county officials can provide water stations,” he said, adding that the restriction on handing out food and water “is just within 150 feet of the precinct.”

“If you’re 151 feet, campaigns can set up tables, food trucks, they can hand out flyers, put up signs,” he continued. “This has been the case in Georgia for a long time and many, many other states.”

Several social media users condemned Kemp for suggesting that voters order food, with some saying that the statement was “tone deaf,” as many people may not be able to afford food delivery services. 

(thehill.com)

He is trying to walk back a restrict and unfair law….and illustrates just how much of political hacks they truly are.

These morons just cannot help being stupid…..and are prime examples of the statement that you “can’t fix stupid”…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Armed Camps

This was not too popular on my op-ed blog, Gulf South Free Press, so I decided to re-blog it here…..just my thoughts of what I see with the people and their love of guns…..this is becoming a slow acting cancer that will eventually enter into stage 4……chuq

Gulf South Free Press

These days with all the ease to obtain guns even assault weapons the US is becoming an armed camp….it is becoming ‘us against them’ once again.

While the debate over gun rights rages….the population is quietly arming themselves…..not sure why other than some delusional bullsh*t.

For years now the militias like the Oath Keepers and so many more have been gaining members and arming themselves for the coming fight with the government.

If you are not sure just what these militia groups want or stand for then maybe this will help a bit….https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_militia_movement

I remember back in the 60s when the Black Panthers were photographic with guns the press and country lost their minds.

Mapping the Black Panther Party - Mapping American Social Movements

There was a concern that there would soon be a ‘race war’ in the US and of course the whites started arming themselves in case there needed to be a response to the coming race war….a…

View original post 503 more words

From The ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’ Files

Closing Thought–14Apr21

 

My favorite Trump big mouth mental midget has spoken again……first he was gonna start a social platform that would sink Twitter and now he will destroy Amazon….

Trump-loving MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell may soon be on the hook for more than $1 billion thanks to a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems — but that’s not stopping him from trying to take on one of the world’s most powerful tech companies.

During an appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room: Pandemic” show, Lindell revealed that he’s creating a website called “MyStore” that he described as “a rival to Amazon.”

Being a legitimate competitor with Amazon doesn’t just involve setting up a website, of course, as Amazon has spent decades investing in building out its warehouse and shipping infrastructure to become the most used e-commerce platform in the United States.

To say that Lindell’s ambitions to take on Amazon elicited skepticism would be an understatement, as Twitter users openly laughed at him for his belief that he can dethrone Jeff Bezos.

https://www.rawstory.com/mike-lindell-amazon-rival/

This guy is what my grandfather use to say….”full of sh*t as a Christmas goose” and it also proves the point that you ‘can’t fix stupid’…..

Turn The Page!

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden And Police Reform

Yet more shootings and deaths of black people it is a never ending story for the media.

First of all he (Biden) promised to limit the amount of military grade stuff….and yet Instead, police are on track to get more military hardware under Biden than they did under Trump…

Did you read that?

MORE military hardware than under Trump…..that promise went down the toilet.

There is an attempt to reign in the runaway police incidents…..

The George Floyd Act……HR120…the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act……

This bill addresses a wide range of policies and issues regarding policing practices and law enforcement accountability. It includes measures to increase accountability for law enforcement misconduct, to enhance transparency and data collection, and to eliminate discriminatory policing practices.

The bill facilitates federal enforcement of constitutional violations (e.g., excessive use of force) by state and local law enforcement. Among other things, it does the following:

  • lowers the criminal intent standard—from willful to knowing or reckless—to convict a law enforcement officer for misconduct in a federal prosecution,
  • limits qualified immunity as a defense to liability in a private civil action against a law enforcement officer or state correctional officer, and
  • authorizes the Department of Justice to issue subpoenas in investigations of police departments for a pattern or practice of discrimination.

The bill also creates a national registry—the National Police Misconduct Registry—to compile data on complaints and records of police misconduct.

It establishes a framework to prohibit racial profiling at the federal, state, and local levels.

The bill establishes new requirements for law enforcement officers and agencies, including to report data on use-of-force incidents, to obtain training on implicit bias and racial profiling, and to wear body cameras.

If you would like to familiarize yourself with the scope of this bill….then I can help with that….

https://www.congress.gov/116/crpt/hrpt434/CRPT-116hrpt434.pdf

This bill passed the House and now it has to contend with the gutless, spineless cowards in the US Senate….and we know just how that will go now don’t we?

Biden also talked about a Police Oversight Commission……establishment of a police oversight commission in his first 100 days was one of President Biden’s campaign promises, the administration now says that such a commission would be unnecessary given the amount of existing research on police practices.

  • Instead, the White House wants to focus its energy on passing police reform legislation.

What they’re saying: “Based on close, respectful consultation with partners in the civil rights community, the administration made the considered judgment that a police commission, at this time, would not be the most effective way to deliver on our top priority in this area, which is to sign the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act into law,” Susan Rice, director of the Domestic Policy Council, told Politico.

  • “This matter is much too urgent for delay, and Congress is by far the more appropriate venue to consider changes in law regarding police accountability,” said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
  • Civil rights groups had also expressed concerns that an ongoing research project by a White House commission could be used as an excuse to defer passing legislation by lawmakers reluctant to support police reform, per Politico.

Well they have decide to throw this idea down the toilet…..and focus on reform…..

Focus all you want….the Senate will prevent any and all reform from ever seeing the light of success.

So we will continue to have the police doing what they always do…..they choose the gun over rational thought…..more people will die and the cycle of deaths, protests, and more deaths will continue.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Senate Of One

Let’s talk about that institution that is about as worthless as its members……the US Senate..

With two Senators from each state, the U.S. Senate is a geographical body, not a democratic body. The two Senators from California represent more people than the 44 Senators representing the smallest 22 states. That makes the U.S. Senate neither representative nor democratic.

That boils down to one thing……Eleven percent of the population gets to veto anything the other 89 percent agree to!

Steve O’Keefe explained why the Senate is undemocratic…..

The 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution called for the direct election of Senators by the voters of their states. Prior to that, Senators were appointed by state legislatures. Something must have happened to compel two-thirds of the states — the super-majority required under the Constitution — to change how Senators were chosen. What was it?

Graft. The way Senators were appointed is they bribed influential state legislators to appoint them. Consequently, Senators tended to be the wealthiest, most repugnant people in the commonwealth who could not possibly earn the vote of a majority of their constituents. Hard to believe, but 100 years ago Senators were hated even more than Senators are hated today.

With direct election of Senators came the 11% solution. The filibuster was meant to protect the ability of minority opinions to be heard but it has had the opposite effect. At first, it did allow Senators the ability to speak their mind, with 60% of the Senate required to shut a Senator up. Crafty Senators realized the power of the filibuster was not stalling popular legislation, but eliminating the ability of the Senate to conduct any other business around the filibusters.

A deal was cut to allow the ordinary business of the Senate to proceed in exchange for requiring 60 votes on any legislation where any one Senator indicated an intention to filibuster. A marvel of Democracy the Senate is not! One Senator can force any law to require a supermajority, Senators representing as few as 11% of the people can block a super-majority, and it takes a super-duper-majority of 34 states to change the rules. Who came up with this system? Oh yeah, white wealthy land “owners.” Hey, that sort of describes the Senate we have now.

The Senate GOP is broken….and the Dems are trying to repair the damage but they will fail…..why?

Joe Manchin (D-WV).

Here is what Manchin thinks of the voting rights legislation he will be considering….

Joe Manchin, who thinks of himself as the new Kingpin of the Senate, says he’ll oppose any voting rights legislation that doesn’t have the backing of Trump supporters:

The only thing I would caution anybody and everybody about is that we had an insurrection on January 6, because of voting, right? … We should not, at all, attempt to do anything that would create more distrust and division.

Seriously?

This wholly owned by the wealthy bucks all efforts to move forward….he is against $15 an hour, he opposes the end of the filibuster, he is against tax increases on the wealthy (to be fair he opposes 29% tax and supports 25% increase)….and he is a Democrat.

Manchin is relishing the idea that he is in control of the Senate……”Joe Manchin represents a state that is 1/22 the population of California and 92% white yet he can singlehandedly block policies supported by 70-80% of Americans,” noted Ari Berman of Mother Jones. “This is why the U.S. Senate is so broken.”

One person is in control and progress will come to a screeching halt…..

Partial list of Biden agenda items that are toast in the Senate if the filibuster remains: • $15 minimum wage • Universal gun background checks • Dream Act • “For The People” Act • John Lewis voting rights act • ACA public option • Equality Act • George Floyd police bill

This should not be happening…..time to cease this type of control from ever happening again.

Do you want one person capable of bringing this democracy to its knees?

If the filibuster is removed then this person would lose all his power and the country can enact programs that move the progress forward.

NO one man deserves this much power in this republic.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Jim Crow 2.0?

These days a common theme in most political talks shows is the use of the term “Jim Crow”.

Personally I do not like the term “Jim Crow 2.0” for I do not think that it tells the whole story.

Too many have NO idea what is meant about Jim Crow laws….call it what it is…..

Many of our states are in the process of suppressing voters rights…..and the debate centers around an old law from days past…..the Jim Crow laws….

But what the Hell are these laws?

About time for some clarity.

“Jim Crow” has long been a derogatory slang term for a black man, making it a fitting name for the laws that were in force in the South and some border states from 1877 through the mid-1960s. These laws were in place to maintain racial segregation after the Civil War ended. Initially, Jim Crow laws required the separation of white people and people of color on all forms of public transportation and in schools. Eventually, the segregation expanded to include interaction and commingling in schools, cemeteries, parks, theaters, and restaurants. Often, anyone who was suspected of having a black ancestor, even just one in the very distant past, was considered to be a person of color and therefore subject to the Jim Crow laws. The overarching purpose of Jim Crow laws was to prevent contact between black people and white people as equals, establishing white people as above black people.

Jim Crow laws began in 1877 when the Supreme Court ruled that states couldn’t prohibit segregation on common modes of transportation such as trains, streetcars, and riverboats. Later, in 1883, the Supreme Court overturned specific parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, confirming the “separate but equal” concept. During the ensuing years, states passed laws instituting requirements for separate and equal accommodations for blacks on public modes of transportation. Black people also had separate schools, hospitals, churches, cemeteries, restrooms, and prisons, and these facilities were usually inferior to facilities for white people, although the laws called for the separate facilities to be of equal quality. Jim Crow laws also influenced social interactions between blacks and whites. Failure to enforce these laws resulted in fines or imprisonment.

To learn more on this attempt to suppress……https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws

Now that you have a working knowledge of the historic context we can move on….

Following the election of Barack Obama, the party immediately passed hundreds of new voter restrictions that were facially neutral but carefully aimed at disenfranchising Black voters. As a federal judge ruled in 2016, voter restrictions like those in North Carolina “target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.” Now in the wake of the 2020 election, that targeting has resumed with renewed vigor.

And the in 2020 that other guy that was running for re-election to the presidency lost….and the rush was on to make sure that the tidal wave of voters could not impact the control of state legislative and governing would remain in the hands of the old white guy network….thus new laws to suppress black/brown voters…..plus the tool of gerrymandering will also be used to decide where voters will live (voter districts).

Call it what you like…..if it reads like Jim Crow……acts like Jim Crow….then the good chance it is Jim Crow 2.0.

More on voter suppression…..https://lobotero.com/2021/03/30/voter-rights-and-suppression/

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Which Are You?

First I would like to thank the few readers that also follow GSFP…..your participation is much appreciated.

I re-blog this pot for those that have not yet found my opinion blog……chuq

Gulf South Free Press

We have another Constitutional crisis…..233 year in the making.

These days there is lots of debate on the Constitution…..and in the beginning there were two sides…the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists…….

But what does that mean?

Federalism was born in 1787, when Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison wrote 85 essays collectively known as the Federalist papers. These eloquent political documents encouraged Americans to adopt the newly-written Constitution and its stronger central government.

Largely influenced by the ideas of Alexander Hamilton, the Federalists succeeded in convincing the Washington administration to assume national and state debts, pass tax laws, and create a central bank. These moves undoubtedly saved the fledgling democracy from poverty and even destruction. In foreign policy, Federalists generally favored England over France.

And their opponents in the Constitution fight…..the Anti-Federalists……but who were these men?

Not all Americans liked the new U.S. Constitution offered to them in 1787. Some…

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Closing Thought–09Apr21

Arkansas is about to become one of this country’s ‘national embarrassments’

How so?

The state could ban health care for some of its citizens.

It’s been a difficult week for transgender people in Arkansas, and Lisa Stuart is finding it hard to stay hopeful.

Last week, the state’s Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, signed two anti-LGBTQ+ bills within 48 hours of each other: a proposal banning trans girls from playing women’s sports in school and another allowing doctors to turn away LGBTQ+ patients. The Arkansas legislature followed up the enactment of those laws on Monday by passing House Bill 1570, a bill that criminalizes gender-affirming care for transgender youth. It’s now one signature away from being the first law ever of its kind.

Stuart, who serves as president of the Arkansas Transgender Equality Coalition, claimed the bills represent a “multipoint assault on the community,” in which lawmakers “come up with as many anti-trans bills as [they] can think of, throw them at the wall, and see what sticks.” When it comes to HB 1750, she admitted she is not optimistic about a veto.

…

HB 1570 is one of at least 21 bills introduced across the country this year seeking to limit the types of medical care that can be offered to trans youth. Under Arkansas’ version, doctors could face potential loss of licensure for offering gender-affirming care to minors under the age of 18. Sponsored by State Representative Robin Lundstrum (R-District 87), the bill text states that anyone who has received hormones or puberty blockers has the ability to bring a lawsuit against their former provider, while blocking insurance from being used for these treatments.

https://www.them.us/story/arkansas-anti-trans-medical-care-bill-governor-asa-hutchinson

Seriously?

Make it legal to withhold medical care because of some lame ass gender thing…..how f*cking pathetic!

Not very Christian now is it?

Does it surprise me?

NO!

Not from a state that gave us Huckabee, Cotton and Clinton…..

NOTHING about this should be permitted.

To withhold medical care when in need is a damnable situation…..and comes with civil rights overtones.

Arkansas is not a one off situation…..several Red States are attempting to find ways to withhold medical care from trans kids…..

But why is this?

It’s become a transgender cliché at this point, but Amanda Dennis, a 41-year-old mom from Northwest Arkansas, always knew her middle child, B, was different.

So when B, now age 8, gravitated toward femininity, Dennis didn’t discourage it. “We have never raised our children in a manner of, ‘You’re a boy, you must do this. You must play with this. You’re a girl, you must do this, play with this,’” she told Vox. “I’ve allowed my children to self-direct and experience the world and life through however they choose to do that.”

That presented some challenges for B in kindergarten and first grade, where she was teased for her femininity by the boys in her class. But then the pandemic hit, and suddenly B was going to remote school, which gave her a chance to breathe and the family an opportunity to help her experiment with her gender in a safe space.

Dennis recalls a moment early in the pandemic when a friend was taking socially distant family pictures in their front yard. “She kept referring to B as ‘she,’ ‘her,’ ‘sweetheart,’ this and that,” said Dennis. “After that was done, I sat down with B and said, ‘How did that make you feel?’ And she said, ‘It doesn’t bother me. I actually prefer that.’”

https://www.vox.com/22360030/trans-kids-health-care-arkansas-explained

Makes me think how moronic the GOP’s “compassionate conservatism” is nothing more than a useless silly slogan.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”