Tag: State Politics

Screw Civics!

I have personally thought that all this division in our government comes from the lack of civics education….our students have no idea how the government works and why.

I begin this post with a quote from Fran Herbert, author of the Dune series…….“Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.”

So far Red States have proven that their leaders are there solely to press onward some out dated ideology…..they no longer work for the entire country just a small portion that they embrace.

I have made my thoughts on numerous occasions about our failure to educate our children on Civics……

https://lobotero.com/2020/07/14/american-mind-civics-class-part-one/
 
 
 
I rehash all this civics stuff because the governor of Florida has just vetoed a bill that would require students to have civics literacy…..
Would have required the state to develop a civics literacy course study that includes participation in outside activities and a research paper describing the experience. The Citizen Scholar Program would have been headquartered at the University of South Florida. DeSantis said the measure would have promoted the “preferred orthodoxy” of USF. Democratic state Rep. Ben Diamond, the bill’s sponsor, said DeSantis was “demonizing” universities. “There is no reasonable explanation for vetoing legislation that had unanimous, bipartisan support and is aimed at improving students’ understanding of government and the importance of civic engagement,’’ Diamond said in a news release.
Here is the letter that DeSantis issued on the veto…..
 
What are these tools afraid will happen when the children learn civics?
 
Apparently these slugs want to keep the indoctrination in place for our children for if they learn more about how this country works then the archaic ideology they embrace will disappear and a more inclusive society will prevail….they cannot have that.
 
DeSantis is embracing the Orwellian concept….”Ignorance is strength”
 
Let ignorance prevail!
 
Watch This Blog!
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Screw The Damn Voter!

Once again the majority on the Supreme Court has proven that they are a pack of gutless spineless ideologues.

That is basically what the US Supreme Court has just stated!

Red states are running rampant with a wide array of bills on issues such as gender and abortion and education and then there is the big push to suppress the vote.

State after Red State has spent all of 2021 so far finding ways to suppress the voter access to their right.

This is what we get when we embrace a party and not the needs of the nation’s people…..people with an agenda and NO actual policies.

I say this is what you get because of the latest decision handed down by SCOTUS.

It is what we get when we allow some agenda driven group like the ultra-conservative Federalist Society pick the judges that will interpret the Constitution for the nation.

What the Hell am I ranting about?

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld voting restrictions in Arizona in a decision that could make it harder to challenge other voting measures put in place by Republican lawmakers, per the AP. The court, by a 6-3 vote, reversed a lower court ruling in deciding that Arizona’s limits on who can return early ballots for another person and refusal to count ballots cast in the wrong precinct are not racially discriminatory. The federal appeals court in San Francisco had held that the measures disproportionately affected Black, Hispanic, and Native American voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Justice Samuel Alito wrote for a conservative majority that the state’s interest in the integrity of elections justified the measures. The court rejected the idea that showing that a state law disproportionately affects minority voters is enough to prove a violation of the law.

In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the court was weakening the landmark voting rights law for the second time in eight years. “What is tragic here is that the Court has (yet again) rewritten—in order to weaken—a statute that stands as a monument to America’s greatness, and protects against its basest impulses,” she wrote. “What is tragic is that the Court has damaged a statute designed to bring about ‘the end of discrimination in voting.’ I respectfully dissent.” Kagan was joined by the court’s other two liberal justices. The challenged Arizona provisions remained in effect in 2020 because the case was still making its way through the courts. President Biden narrowly won Arizona last year, and since 2018, the state has elected two Democratic senators.

The Supreme Court is suppose to be the arbiter of the laws of the land….a neutral umpire if you will….so far they are failing in that duty….when decisions made according to political ideology and not the spirit of the Founders wishes…this is what we get…..disenfranchisement of a portion of society.

I apologize if this post reads like a disjointed mess…..but when I read this decision I went into a screaming rant……

These old farts have just basically made it much harder for the people to exercise their right as a citizen…..these tools should be making it easier to vote not helping find ways to suppression a portion of our society from exercising a basic right.

This what we get!

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–25Jun21

I thought Texas was about the worse state government in this country….sadly Florida is closing in on that distinction……

If that idiot Ron DeSantis gets his moronic way,,,,professors ans students will have to declare their political sway……

Public universities in Florida will be required to survey both faculty and students on their political beliefs and viewpoints, with the institutions at risk of losing their funding if the responses are not satisfactory to the state’s Republican-led legislature. 

The unprecedented project, which was tucked into a law signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, is part of a long-running, nationwide right-wing push to promote “intellectual diversity” on campuses — though worries over a lack of details on the survey’s privacy protections, and questions over what the results may ultimately be used for, hover over the venture.

Based on the bill’s language, survey responses will not necessarily be anonymous — sparking worries among many professors and other university staff that they may be targeted, held back in their careers or even fired for their beliefs. 

https://www.salon.com/2021/06/23/desantis-signs-bill-requiring-florida-students-professors-to-register-political-views-with-state/

Seriously?

What will they do to me if I refuse to register my political views?

Mr. DeSantis……BITE ME!

This could become a thing for all Red legislatures….but sorry my political views are just that….MINE!

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–21Jun21

“Texans need guns”

With at least 300 gun violence incidents in 2021…the last thing we need (anywhere in this country) is more lax gun laws.

But do not worry…..Texas gives a sh*t about this stat…..

Gov. Abbot made this claim at a signing of a new bill…..

Gov. Greg Abbott invoked not just the imagery of the Alamo when he signed a package of legislation relaxing gun control laws in Texas—he called on the head of the National Rifle Association to line up with him. The governor staged a bill-signing ceremony Thursday in San Antonio, a day after actually signing the bills, the Austin American-Statesman reports. One of the new laws allows anyone 21 or older to carry a handgun in public without a permit. Until now, a permit was required, as was training and a criminal background check. “There is a need for people to have a weapon to defend themselves in the Lone Star State,” Abbott said, per the AP. Wayne LaPierre, NRA boss, said: “People want to be able to protect themselves. And thank God that Texas is leading the way for the country.”

At the same time, demonstrators including Moms Demand Action protested the new laws outside the governor’s mansion in Austin. The other six measures, all of which take effect Sept. 1, per the American-Statesman, will:

  • Prohibit government contracts with any entity that discriminates against the firearm industry.
  • Keep hotels from enacting restrictive gun policies.
  • Grant people carrying handguns more choices on which holster to wear.
  • Take firearm suppressors off the list of prohibited weapons under the Texas Penal Code.
  • Decree firearms manufacturers and sellers essential businesses.
  • Bar state and local governments from enforcing new federal gun regulations.

The head of the Texas Municipal Police Association says the new legislation will make it tougher for officers to determine whether someone carrying a gun is allowed to, per Reuters.

Now that is what we need…..more and easy access to carry guns for morons with half a brain.

This will do nothing to help the spiraling upwards of incidents of gun violence and it is now Summer and it will only get worse.

Not to worry……

This will become the poster child for more GOP states to do something that means nothing to the livelihood of the people.

Let stupidity prevail!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–18May21

Mississippi’s governor did what all cowards within the GOP does……he jumped on the BS that people are not working because they make too much on unemployment….

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves followed the lead of his Republican counterparts in Montana and South Carolina by announcing the state will refuse expanded federal unemployment benefits, costing unemployed Mississippians $300 a week in an effort to force them into low-wage jobs—despite a lot of data showing that Republican claims about the effects of the federal unemployment aid boost are simply false.

President Joe Biden pushed back on some of those claims in Monday remarks on the economy, saying “we don’t see much evidence” that people are staying home because of high unemployment benefits, and pointing out: “We still have 8 million fewer jobs than we did when the pandemic started.” At the same time, Biden emphasized that “anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits.”

In Mississippi, businesses “report that they cannot get employees to return to work because they can earn more from combined federal and state unemployment benefits than their normal wages … These businesses are no longer suffering from a lack of demand due to COVID-19,” Mississippi state House Speaker Philip Gunn wrote in a letter to Reeves. “Rather, they are suffering from a labor shortage caused by unemployment benefits that exceed normal wage levels for productive work.”

Mississippi’s maximum unemployment benefit without the added $300 a week is $235, so the benefits that “exceed normal wage levels for productive work” end up at $13.38 an hour, just under the $13.43 an hour that the MIT Living Wage Calculator says is a living wage for one adult with no children in Mississippi.

Contrary to Republican claims that people are staying home because they don’t want to work, Ashton Pittman reports that Mississippi’s labor force participation rate is back to pre-pandemic levels. People are either working or looking for work, in other words. And nationally, the April jobs data suggests “the exact opposite” of the claim that people aren’t looking for work because they can get more money from unemployment benefits, as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently noted. That’s because the highest job growth has been in low-wage industries like hospitality and food service, where unemployment benefits can outstrip wages. 

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/11/2029937/-Mississippi-dives-into-the-Republican-push-to-blame-low-wage-workers-for-the-COVID-19-economy

This spin that people do not want to work because they are making too much with it is just plain BS.

It seems they want to blame people for the shitty work environment….the GOP is killing workers with their fixation on BS.

Enough Said!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Is Our Democracy In Danger?

There is so much chaos in this country these days.

Misinformation and lies are driving this chaos.

So to answer my own question….yes it is…and it is in deep danger.

From denial of science to the denial of elections to voter suppression and most of all this chaos can be laid at the feet of the GOP.

And all this chaos grows from the policies put forth by state GOPs……the obstruction and the denial of real policies that move the state forward they focus on cultural crap that has NO place in the legislatures of this country……stuff like bathrooms, abortions, who we can boycott or not….silly shit that has no business taking up the time of elected representatives.

I ask again….is our democracy in danger?

Research is showing that it IS in danger and GOP lead states are the cause….

Georgia passed a restrictive new voting law that, in effect, permits the Republican state legislature to put partisan operatives in charge of disqualifying ballots in Democratic-leaning precincts. The law is one of at least eight proposals from GOP lawmakers in state legislatures around the country for increasing partisan influence over electoral administration — and one of more than 360 state bills that would curtail voting rights in one way or another.

New political science research suggests this wave of attempts to restrict the franchise is not an anomaly: Republican control over state government is correlated with large and measurable declines in the health of a state’s democracy.

The paper, by University of Washington professor Jake Grumbach, constructs a quantitative measure of democratic health at the state level in the US. He looked at all 50 states between 2000 and 2018 to figure out why some states got more democratic over this period and others less. The conclusions were clear: The GOP is the problem.

“Results suggest a minimal role for all factors except Republican control of state government, which dramatically reduces states’ democratic performance during this period,” he writes.

https://www.vox.com/2021/4/5/22358325/study-republican-control-state-government-bad-for-democracy

These moronic politicians are harming the people of their states but they care less….and the saddest thing is that the residents of these states could care less….they cling to BS and misinformation instead of looking beyond their backyard and seeing the bigger picture.

But why is this happening?

The GOP has been completely taken over by the conspiracists…..

New York Times reporter Peter Baker told MSNBC that the one takeaway he had from his interview with former Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman (VA) was how hard it will be to extricate the Republican Party from the conspiracy-wing of the GOP.

Speaking to Yasmin Vossoughian on Sunday, Baker explained that Riggleman was endorsed by Donald Trump and the Freedom Caucus, but now he feels uncomfortable in his own party.

“I think, frankly, the tipping point shows how difficult it’s going to be for Republicans like Denver Riggleman to break through and that’s because he lost,” said Baker. “He was no longer going to have to face voters. Once he was unburdened by that, he was able to speak the truth more forcefully. He told me, and he’s an incredible credible source this, that he was in the private meetings, in the Republican conference meetings where he knew that he and about 70 percent of his colleagues generally believed that Trump was exaggerating, that Trump was hurting their party and that ultimately they had to go along with it in order to get re-elected.”

https://www.rawstory.com/republican-party-eradicate-conspiracy-theorists/

Let’s face it….the ‘good old boys’ network is petrified of change….and they will push anything that slows the winds of change…even wild untrue conspiracies.

So yes it is in danger….the GOP has learned a political lesson from Stalin….always have ‘your’ people in positions of power.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Whose Big Idea Was It?

At least 37 states are attempting to suppress the vote in their states…..of course they use the security of the institution as a premise for the suppression.

But since it is a wildly popular in most states the next question logically would be ….whose idea was this suppression……where did it all originate……

A great question and now we know thanks to a leaked video…..

In a private meeting last month with big-money donors, the head of a top conservative group boasted that her outfit had crafted the new voter suppression law in Georgia and was doing the same with similar bills for Republican state legislators across the country. “In some cases, we actually draft them for them,” she said, “or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from-the-bottom-up type of vibe.”

The Georgia law had “eight key provisions that Heritage recommended,” Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America, a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation, told the foundation’s donors at an April 22 gathering in Tucson, in a recording obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with Mother Jones. Those included policies severely restricting mail ballot drop boxes, preventing election officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters, making it easier for partisan workers to monitor the polls, preventing the collection of mail ballots, and restricting the ability of counties to accept donations from nonprofit groups seeking to aid in election administration.

All of these recommendations came straight from Heritage’s list of “best practices” drafted in February. With Heritage’s help, Anderson said, Georgia became “the example for the rest of the country.”

Leaked Video: Dark Money Group Brags About Writing GOP Voter Suppression Bills Across the Country

Watch the video!

I have been writing about the evils of Heritage for 30+ years….and now all can see just how much they hate democracy.

Do not be fooled by groups with cutsey names like “freedom” this or that….it is and has always been a con job….a con job that works well with the ignorant few.

Heritage is dangerous….and now their deceit has come to light…..

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Mississippi Voters Mean Nothing!

I have said on numerous occasions that the vote means little to politicians anymore…..and Mississippi proves my point.

Recently there was an initiative that the Mississippi voter approved of the sale of medical marijuana…..a win right?

Maybe elsewhere but not in Mississippi…..

In a brutal loss for direct democracy in Mississippi, the state’s supreme court struck down a ballot amendment on Friday that legalized medical marijuana in the state. But the ruling didn’t stop there. Invoking a technical flaw in the law, the court invalidated the entire process for amending the state’s constitution by popular vote.

“The killing of our ballot initiative process means that Mississippi is, definitively, the state with the least democracy, the most restricted ballot access, and where voters’ voices matter least when it comes to the deciding our future,” said Ashton Pittman, a reporter at the Mississippi Free Press.

“The Mississippi Supreme Court just overturned the will of the people of Mississippi,” read a statement from Medical Marijuana MS, which organized Initiative 65 that would legalize the use of the drug. “Patients will now continue the suffering that so many Mississippians voted to end.”

About 73 percent of voters supporter legalizing medical marijuana, according to Pittman.

At the heart of the court’s decision is a crucial flaw in the process that gives voters the power to amend the constitution by popular vote. According to the law, organizers for ballot measures have to collect signatures from the five different congressional districts in the state. But since the 2000 census, Mississippi dropped from having five districts to having only four.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/mississippi-supreme-court/

This is what you get when party politics is a decider on judges.

I continue to be a critic of voting as it is today…..

The people’s will means NOTHING to partisan politicians.

If it happened in Mississippi then it can happen elsewhere……..beware!

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–07May21

I live in what is being called these days as the “New South”….I have questioned the title for some time…..my premise is that very little has changed from what is the “Old South”…….the racism that all seem to think that is on the wane is far from……

Those in-bred spineless white boys that keep winning thanx to the legislation that the old white boys keep enacting prove their bias….and the most recent example is from Tennessee……this idiot wants to re-write history with the hope of continuing the racial bias…..

A Tennessee Republican falsely declared Tuesday that an 18th-century policy designating a slave as three-fifths of a person was adopted for “the purpose of ending slavery,” commenting amid a debate over whether educators should be restricted while teaching about systematic racism in America. During lengthy debate on the GOP-controlled state House floor, several Black lawmakers expressed concerns about the bill’s impact on how certain subjects would be taught in schools, specifically highlighting the Three-Fifths Compromise, the AP reports. The policy was made during the nation’s Constitutional Convention in 1787 and classified that three-fifths of a state’s slave population could be counted toward its total population when apportioning taxes and states’ representation in Congress. Historians largely agree the compromise gave slaveholding states inordinate power over choosing a president—and decisions of the Continental Congress. That clout eventually faded when Northern state populations began to rapidly rise.

Rep. Justin Lafferty, who is white, stood up and talked at length about what he saw as sparking the compromise. At one point he asked colleagues to note on paper their best guess for the reasons that led to the policy. “By limiting the number of population in the count, they specifically limited the number of representatives who would be available in the slave holding states and they did it for the purpose of ending slavery,” said Lafferty, from Knoxville. “Well before Abraham Lincoln. Well before Civil War.” None of the other lawmakers in the chamber directly challenged Lafferty’s false claims but some applauded when he finished talking. While the House overwhelmingly approved the legislation on Tuesday, the GOP-controlled Senate chamber refused to accept the House bill hours later. Its fate now remains unclear in the final days of the legislative session.

Historical revisionism just to keep the minorities in their “place”.

I would say that the New South smells as racist as the Old South….What about you?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Voter Fraud Easy To Eliminate

The news these days is of course Covid and then voter suppression being attempted by many states.

The GOP in the states have been buying into the “Big Lie” of voter fraud for decades…..now that they control so many state legislatures they have set about voter suppression under the guise of eliminating voter fraud (a unsubstantiated claim)….but the elimination of voter fraud (if we ever prove the claim) is easy to stop …….

Republicans care a whole lot about election security these days. Fueled in part by the “Big Lie,” the baseless claim that there was widespread fraud in last year’s election, Republican lawmakers around the country have made an aggressive push to pass new laws to prevent what they saw as a nightmare scenario from happening again. While the motivation to improve election security is spurious, the ostensible goal isn’t — everyone would agree that a secure election is important for democracy. Experts say there’s one very effective way for state legislatures to make the voting process more secure: pass legislation to update voting machines. But instead of prioritizing this effort, many Republicans are instead focused on limiting voter access.

“It would be terrific to see the focus on election security lead to more investments in better, more trustworthy systems,” said Mark Lindeman, co-director of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election security organization. 

The gold standard for voting security is hand-marked paper ballots, according to security experts. That’s because a paper ballot eliminates the risk of technical difficulties or certain kinds of malicious acts (think hacking) that could change or destroy your vote, and any concerns can be addressed with a recount. Because of that, most states currently use hand-marked paper ballots or have voting machines that generate paper records for verification. 

Republicans Say They Care About Election Fraud. Here’s How They Could Actually Prevent It.

A ‘problem’ that has a solution….but then do these states really want to find a solution or is it just better to keep a bad system in place and use it as a crutch for voter suppression?

These ‘fixes’ are nothing more than the politicians picking their voters…..not the voter decision any longer.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”