Tag: State Politics

Session Will Try Again

We had Sen. Session from Alabama and then we had Jeff Sessions attorney general of the US….then we had a Session sent home to Alabama by Trump….and now we may see Session trying to recapture his legacy by running for the Senate from Alabama….AGAIN.

Sessions left DC because he was on the Trump “Sh*t List”…..and apparently he remains on that list even to this day……

Jeff Sessions is going to take a shot at resuming the Senate career he abandoned for an ill-fated stint in the Trump administration, insiders say. Sources tell the New York Times and NPR that the Republican, who served in the Senate for 20 years before becoming President Trump’s attorney general for 21 months, plans to file paperwork for a Senate run in Alabama before the Friday deadline. Sessions, who was forced out of the administration, repeatedly clashed with the president after recusing himself from the Russia investigation. A source tells the Times that after recent reports that Sessions was planning a comeback, Trump warned Sessions through allies that he would publicly attack him if he decided to run.

In the March 3 Republican primary, Sessions will compete against a crowded GOP field that includes Roy Moore, who lost the 2017 special election to replace Sessions after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced. Rep. Bradley Byrne, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, and state Rep. Arnold Mooney are also vying to unseat Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. One of NPR’s sources says Sessions, who will appear on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show Thursday night, is “definitely acting alone,” without the support of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or the Senate Republican campaign operation.

Maybe someone should explain the concept of State’s Rights to our president for he apparently missed that class during his’ extensive’ education……or maybe they do not teach Civics where he went to school.

It will be up to the people of Alabama to decide who will represent them in DC…..Trump has little to say about it.

I have little use for Sessions and his policies but the people of Alabama will have to decide….will they be lead by the nose or will they act independently?

My guess is their knee pads await.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Mississippi Makes The News (Again)

I live in the state of Mississippi and from time to time we make the news….usually it is some disaster like a hurricane or tornado but we seldom make the news when it comes to voting because the state is so red it feels like a smothering heat.

But recently we had an election for governor and our new touch screen machines made your choice for the voter….

Facebook user in Mississippi has posted a video showing touch-screen voting machines changing votes during Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff election for the governor’s race. The video shows a voter trying to cast their ballot for Bill Walker Jr., only for the machine to change the vote to Tate Reeves.

Some citizens, however, are having trouble making their vote. Voting machines in at least three precincts have rejected votes for Waller, selecting Reeves instead. The error does not appear to have affected all of the machines.

According to the Clarion Ledger, a machine at the Burgess precinct in Oxford — the machine in the above video — refused to register a vote for Waller. Before the error was detected, 19 votes had been cast on that particular machine.

https://www.newsweek.com/touch-screen-voting-devices-are-automatically-changing-votes-mississippi-1456445

Not to worry it was only a “glitch”….but how many “glitches” does it take to swing an election?

The more I see stories like this the more I feel that the US voting is becoming more and more like some third world dictatorship…

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–23May19

I live in Mississippi and I have been hard on my local representatives….I think they, like their cousins in DC, are a spineless, gutless bunch…..but with all the drama around over abortion and tax cuts for corporations and the killing of some medical services for the poor they still have time for sex……

A Mississippi lawmaker is accused of drunkenly punching his wife in the face, and all because cops say he didn’t think she undressed for sex quickly enough. The Clarion Ledger reports GOP Rep. Doug McLeod was arrested over the weekend in Lucedale, and a George County Sheriff’s Department report seen by the Sun Herald reveals some disturbing details. Deputies say when they responded to a domestic violence call at McLeod’s home around 9pm Saturday, an apparently intoxicated McLeod opened the door, holding a boozy beverage and proclaiming, “Are you kidding me?” at the sight of the officers. He was slurring his speech and had trouble walking, per the report, and inside the home, deputies found his shaking, scared wife, her face bloodied from what cops say was a punch to the nose by McLeod. Deputies say they also found blood on the couple’s bed and on the bedroom floor.

Another woman present told cops McLeod’s wife had run to her room, and the two women barricaded themselves inside, with McLeod allegedly yelling from the hall to the second woman that he would “kill her [expletive] dog.” McLeod’s wife told cops her husband had “just snapped” as he often does while drinking. McLeod, 58, was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence and is free on $1,000 bail, but he’s apparently not taking many calls. “I have attempted to contact Rep. McLeod to request his resignation, if in fact, these allegations are true,” GOP House Speaker Philip Gunn said Tuesday, calling McLeod’s alleged behavior “unacceptable for anyone,” per the AP. Gov. Phil Bryant also weighed in, calling allegations of abuse “reprehensible,” per WJTV. Bryant “trusts local authorities to … thoroughly investigate this matter,” per a statement from his office.

I am so proud that we make political news like this…..and a GOPer to boot! 

Go figure!

What Part Of This Moves The Country Forward?

In the last couple of weeks abortion has once again taken front row importance in politics……

First in Georgia……

One, two, three—and now, four. Georgia has passed a bill banning abortions after a detectable fetal “heartbeat,” making it the fourth US state to pass such a law this year, per Vox. “All life has value, all life matters and all life is worthy of protection,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday in signing the bill more than a month after it passed the legislature, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. As in Ohio, Kentucky, and Mississippi, court challenges await. Critics say the bill equals a near-total abortion ban as fetal cardiac activity is detected just six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. It “flies in the face of 50 years of US Supreme Court precedent,” says Andrea Young of Georgia’s ACLU. “We will see Governor Kemp in court.”

Unless it’s struck down, the law will go into effect in January with exceptions when the mother’s life is at risk or for “the accidental or unintentional injury to or death of an unborn child.” Unlike Ohio’s law, a woman in Georgia can also obtain an abortion after the fetal heartbeat is detected in cases of rape or incest, though she’ll need to provide a police report. Otherwise, mothers, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists could be subject to criminal prosecution for seeking, performing, or assisting in an abortion once a heartbeat is heard.

Then came the Alabama law…….

After rejecting an attempt to add an exception for rape or incest, Alabama’s Senate passed the nation’s strictest abortion law Tuesday. The bill, which passed by a vote of 25-6, makes performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison, the Guardian reports. Four Republican senators joined Democrats in voting in favor of the rape or incest exception, which was defeated 21-11. The only exception that remained in the bill is for women whose health is at serious risk. The bill—which punishes doctors, not women seeking abortions—will now head to the desk of Gov. Kay Ivey, whose office says she won’t make a decision until she sees the final version of the legislation, reports AL.com. (Not to worry the gov signed it into law)

I have one question….but before I ask it…..on a personal note…I am against abortion but it is never my decision to make and therefore it has definitely not the government’s place to make it either.

I understand the state’s push to limit voting or gerrymandering….that moves a political agenda and benefits a party over another.

With that said….this push for the overturning of Roe v Wade…..what does it do for the country?  Does it improve the infrastructure?  Does it improve the income of states?  Does it create any jobs?  Does it help feed the hungry?  Or house the homeless?  Maybe help keep the border safe?

Just what in Hell does this energy, time and money actually do for the state that the laws have been passed?

This is how you do it.  This is how you overturn a law that you do  not like.  Chip away at it until the emotions run high and you get stuff done.

It has taken 50+ years and all that whining and bitching could pay off when this makes it to the Supreme Court….this is how you force a belief on a country that does not agree with you.

To me this is a worthless endeavor that does NOTHING to improve the country and the lives of the people.

Ain’t democracy great?

Talbert Swan put something on Twitter that rings true…..

Only in American can you be:

Pro-Death Penalty– Pro-Unrestricted Gun Rights– Pro-War Pro-Preemptive Strikes– Pro-Torture– Pro-Healthcare Repeal Pro-Police, defending every extrajudicial murder of an unarmed  persons… …and still perfidiously call yourself ‘Pro-Life.’

Well said!

Closing Thought–06Nov18

The cooler weather did not last too long…it is back up to 80 today….oh goody….more sweat to look forward to…..

AS we prepare to go to your local polling station there is a story that has not gotten the attention it deserves…it is religious babble from a theocrat wannabe…….

A Washington state lawmaker who moonlights as a wannabe theocrat has stumbled into FBI scrutiny over a how-to guide he wrote on killing non-believers and establishing a Christian theocracy.

Five-term Washington state Rep. Matt Shea has been circulating a manual for holy war in the United States, the Seattle Times reported.

The four-page document, titled “Biblical Basis for War,” goes point-by-point over how a Christian theocratic movement could – and should – exterminate its opposition in a battle to win a hypothetical holy war.

At the outset, Shea’s holy army would issue terms of surrender to its enemies. The demands include “stop all abortions,” “no same-sex marriage,” “no idolatry or occultism,” “no communism,” and “must obey Biblical law.”

If the rest of the country refuses to “yield” to these terms, the document advocates a final solution: “kill all males.”

Most of the document veers into the absurd.

Under “Things for a Holy Army,” Shea remembers to include “Circumcision/Saved,” after Sacrifice/Worship/Prayer.

talkingpointsmemo.com)

Sounds like someone who should be in the good graces of our second in command…..Pence who himself is a theocrat waiting to assume power……a sickening bunch as there ever was…..people like these toads should be held up for ridicule and disgust by a normal society.

¡¡¡¡DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE TODAY!!!!

Closing Thought–11Jun18

Since the 60’s and the “Free Love” Movement sex has become a source of many things…..ad agencies use it to sell products, Hollywood uses it to get the attention of their products and then there are some people that blame sex or more specifically “porn” for all the ills of society.

One of the best (that term was used sarcastically) statement about “porn” came from a GOP Congresswoman (go figure)…..we have had a rash of school shootings well a rash of all kinds of shootings and people look for a logical reason for these horrendous acts……the Congresswoman has hit it out of the park (again….sarcasm)…….

Republicans have long insisted that porn is destroying America, and GOP lawmakers have been quietly waging war on it in state legislatures for years—even if some of them seem to enjoy the stuff themselves. Now, a Tennessee congresswoman is taking the unfounded claim that porn is evil to new heights—arguing it’s somehow a “root cause” of America’s school shooting epidemic.

Diane Black, a Republican representative running for governor of Tennessee, made the comment at a listening session with a roomful of ministers last week, the Huffington Post reports. Discussing what she called the “root causes” of school shootings, she brushed off the fact that America is home to more than five times as many guns as any other country, instead pinning the blame on violent movies, the “deterioration of the family,” and smut.

“It’s available on the shelf when you walk in the grocery store,” Black said. “Yeah, you have to reach up to get it, but there’s pornography there. All of this is available without parental guidance. And I think that is a big part of the root cause.”

Speaking of smut……the governor of Missouri got caught with his pants down……figurative and possibly literally……he took pics of a woman without her consent……

Just hours before he left office Friday, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens signed scores of new laws, including a measure that makes it a crime to try to threaten a person using a private sexual image—the same allegation that led to his downfall, reports the AP. In the flurry of last-minute activity, the scandal-plagued governor approved 77 new laws, granted several pardons and commutations, and won at least a temporary reprieve in a court battle over campaign records. He posted a long Facebook message touting his accomplishments—without any mention of why he was quitting—and quietly left Capitol about an hour before his resignation took effect.

A short time later, fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Parson was sworn in as Greitens’ successor and immediately pledged “to bring honor, integrity (and) transparency to the governor’s office.” The “revenge porn” law signed by Greitens creates a felony that will apply to cases when someone threatens the nonconsensual dissemination of a private sexual image by coercing another person to refrain from an action. The governor has been accused of taking a nonconsensual photo of a partially nude woman with whom he had an affair in 2015 and warning her he would distribute it if she ever spoke of their encounter. He has acknowledged having the affair but denied criminal wrongdoing and refused to directly answer questions about whether he took the photo.

If you thought they could get no worse than these two toads…….

Nathan Larson, a self-declared racist and ex-con who advocates for pedophilia and rape, is running for Congress in the 10th Congressional District of Virginia.

While speaking to HuffPost on Thursday, the 37-year-old independent candidate from Charlottesville told the publication he identifies as a “quasi-neoreactionary libertarian” who is open about his pedophilia so as to remain unconstrained by “political correctness.”

“A lot of people are tired of political correctness and being constrained by it,” Larson told the outlet. “People prefer when there’s an outsider who doesn’t have anything to lose and is willing to say what’s on a lot of people’s minds.”

(thehill,com)

Least we not forget the GOP governor of Alabama got caught having an affair on the state’s dime…..

And yet the GOP is suppose to be the moral high ground in politics…….now that is a big joke that only the GOP can believe….most are pervs of the first degree.

I use to give the “B3 Award” (Babbling Buffoons Of Babylon Award) in the earlier days of In Saner Thought….an award for those people that let their mouths overload their ass…..and there are many.

Closing Thought–01Jun18

I would like to leave my readers today with a bit of history that almost everyone has forgotten but is not dead in the least.

That little slice of history is the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)……can you remember the fight back in the 70’s…….no?

The proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) states that the rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply equally to all persons regardless of their sex. After the 19th Amendment affirming women’s right to vote was ratified in 1920, suffragist leader Alice Paul introduced the ERA in 1923 as the next step in bringing “equal justice under law” to all citizens.

In 1972, the ERA was finally passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The original seven-year time limit was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at that deadline, the ERA had been ratified by only 35 states, three states short of the 38 required to put it into the Constitution. The ERA has been introduced into every Congress since the deadline, and beginning in 1994, ERA advocates have been pursuing two different routes to ratification:

  • the traditional process described in Article V of the Constitution (passage by a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, followed by ratification by three-quarters of the states), and
  • the innovative “three-state strategy” (ratification in three more of the 15 state legislatures that did not ratify the ERA in 1972-82, based on legal analysis that when three more states vote yes, this process could withstand legal challenge and accomplish ratification of the ERA)

I drag this out of the dust bin of history because the ratification process is NOT dead and after a recent vote there is only one state short of ratification…..

Illinois has ratified the Equal Rights Amendment a mere 36 years after the deadline for ratification, 46 years after it passed Congress, and 97 years after it was introduced. The amendment, which calls for men and women to have equal rights under state and federal law, was approved by 35 of the necessary 38 states when the deadline passed in 1982, CNN reports. Nevada finally approved it in 2017 and advocates hope it will finally be added to the Constitution if one more state ratifies it, though five states have rescinded their original ratifications, meaning there could be a legal battle even if the magic number of 38 is reached, Reuters reports. The amendment failed in Virginia’s legislature earlier this year.

The measure passed the Illinois House with a single vote to spare in a victory that NPR calls a “stark turnaround” for the home state of conservative Phyllis Schlafly, an anti-feminist activist who campaigned against the ERA in the ’70s. “Years in the making, yesterday’s vote in Illinois brings us one step closer,” says Lenora Lapidus, director of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. “We look forward to more progress being made, and ensuring that women are explicitly protected against discrimination.” With calls to revive the amendment growing stronger amid the #MeToo movement, Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney plans to hold a congressional hearing on the ERA next week. It will be the first since 1984.

Which state will be the history maker….which state will bring about the ratification of the ERA?

That’s it for me guys…..peace out…..chuq