"The Global Consciousness Project, also known as the EGG Project, is an international multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers, artists and others continuously collecting data from a global network of physical random number generators located in 65 host sites worldwide. The archive contains over 10 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials every second."
Archive for the ‘– Politics… that "dirty" little "game" that first begins in the home.’ Category
Politics is the art of compromise, and politics first begins in the home, because no one always gets their own way all the time. Sometimes, Daddy gets his way, sometimes Mama gets hers. And by mutual consent, on occasion, the children get theirs. But NOBODY gets their way all the time!
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, November 22, 2020
Schizophrenia is a mental illness which is not fully understood, but is diagnosed by the presence of symptoms, many of which are unique to the disease, but by no means exclusive. Delusions (unshakable belief in something untrue), hallucinations (actual perceptions, not imagined, originating in the absence of a real object, either auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile, etc.), withdrawal from reality, and disorganized patterns of thinking and speech are among the most remarkable, and readily identifiable symptoms of schizophrenia.
Colloquially, most laypersons would note delusions and and hallucinations as the most renown symptoms of schizophrenia, and while they are correct, they often add paranoia (irrational distrust or suspicion of others), thus, in their estimation, “delusions” often become “paranoid delusions.” But again, because schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disease (consisting of dissimilar elements or parts, i.e., miscellaneous), paranoia doesn’t always accompany the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Schizoaffective disorder is a very similarly related mental health condition which is characterized by a combination of schizophrenia symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions, as well as mood disorder symptoms, such as depression or mania. And typically, treatment of schizoaffective disorder combines treatment for both symptoms – mood disorder, and schizoid features.
But the point being, it is the schizoid feature of delusion upon which I wish to focus, because it is perhaps the most renown, and most common.
At its core, delusions are strong beliefs in something that is untrue. And when I use the term “belief,” I mean specifically to refer to the level of personal, mental confidence – acceptance or conviction of the validity, or truth of something – that an individual possesses in something, some idea, some thought, theory, or tenet, that is as yet, largely unproven. And while I remain a critic and detractor of the Wikipedia website for numerous reasons, I will use this definition of delusion found upon the site because I find it inclusively succinct.
“A delusion is a fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, or some other misleading effects of perception.”
For example, while it is untrue that the Earth is flat, there remains at least one “Flat Earth Society” whose members are adherents to the false, and disproven notion that the Earth is flat, rather than ball-shaped, or round. Thus, anyone who holds to that idea, is deluded.
And being so deluded in the presence of overwhelming and irrefutable abundance of evidence to the contrary, it would call into question the mental stability of the individual(s) holding forth that disproven and false idea as true, when it is so blatantly and obviously not true.
So it is with the GOP,
Donald John Trump,
and his cult-like supporters.
They are deluded, and their mental condition is immediately suspect.
Bluntly, they are sick.
If you don’t laugh after reading the headlines below and see the utter hypocrisy of the GOP… you may be a Trumper.
Those mofos just can’t be pleased.
Seriously.
They can’t.
First, they want the vote counting in Pennsylvania stopped… because.
Yes, because.
When the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania judge asked the Trump/GOP lawyers if they were alleging fraud… here’s the transcript from the oral argument:
THE COURT: In your petition, which is right before me — and I read it several times — you don’t claim that any electors or the Board of the County were guilty of fraud, correct? That’s correct?
MR. GOLDSTEIN: Your Honor, accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step. And it is rare that I call somebody a liar, and I am not calling the Board of the DNC or anybody else involved in this a liar. Everybody is coming to this with good faith. The DNC is coming with good faith. We’re all just trying to get an election done. We think these were a mistake, but we think they are a fatal mistake, and these ballots ought not be counted.
THE COURT: I understand. I am asking you a specific question, and I am looking for a specific answer. Are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these 592 disputed ballots?
MR. GOLDSTEIN: To my knowledge at present, no.
THE COURT: Are you claiming that there is any undue or improper influence upon the elector with respect to these 592 ballots?
MR. GOLDSTEIN: To my knowledge at present, no.
So the President’s own lawyers are not alleging fraud – at least not in Pennsylvania.
And now, we turn to Georgia, where the Associated Press has maintained silence on “calling” the race for either candidate, simply because it’s still “too close to call.”
Amidst that cacophony, the state’s Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, has announced a “pre-emptive” move, of sorts, to not only canvass the count, and statistically sample it as well by performing a risk limiting audit, but as part of that process, they’re going to perform a manual, by-hand count of every single ballot cast in the Presidential race in Georgia. That means, that every single, solitary ballot will be touched by human hands to physically examine them for the vote cast in the Presidential race.
Of note, there are some conditions that, if one does not understand the terms, lack of understanding the phenomenon could be deliberately twisted to deceive the public. Those two most common events are called “undervote” and “overvote,” and describe the condition in which a voter does not cast a vote for a particular race (or may vote for more than one, though that now rarely occurs), but votes for other candidates or measures on the ballot. So, for example, in a given sample of 100 ballots examined, not all 100 voters will have cast ballots in every race. For the purpose of illustration, let’s say there is a grand total of 5 candidates and measures upon the ballot. Not all 100 voters will cast a ballot (make a decision upon) all 5 races. Some will, though not all will.
Thus, it’s entirely possible, and quite likely, that each race will have some “undervotes,” which are the number of voters who chose not to cast a ballot in those particular races. So, in Race 1, there could be 90 votes cast (70 + 20 for a+b), while in Race 2, there could be 100 votes cast (60+40 for a+b), and in Race 3, there could be 60 votes cast (50+10 for a+b), while in Race 4 there could be 98 votes cast (90+8 for a+b), and in Race 5, there could be 20 ballots cast (15+5 for a+b).
The results would look like this:
Hypothetical Election
Using an example of 100 total voters, this is to show that not all voters cast ballots in every race, and how to account for the discrepancies in the individual races.
Race/Question
Votes
a/b
Votes Cast
a+b
Undervotes
TOTAL
VC+U
Race 1
90
10
100
0
100
Race 2
70
10
80
20
100
Race 3
10
60
70
30
100
Race 4
15
85
100
0
100
Race 5
30
31
61
39
100
Secretary Raffensberger announced that the Presidential contest will undergo a risk-limiting audit, which requires a full by-hand recount in each of Georgia’s 159 counties, and said “It will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass all at once. It will be a heavy lift.”
Secretary Raffensberger said that 97 of Georgia’s 159 counties have submitted their final tallies from the election to his office, and that the margin of victory for Democratic Presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden, Jr. has increased to 14,111 over the incumbent Republican President Donald John Trump.
Trump’s campaign and the Georgia Republican Party sent a letter to Secretary Raffensberger on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 requesting a manual hand recount of all ballots cast in the state before his office certifies the election results. In their letter, the Trump campaign and Georgia state GOP allege unspecified voting discrepancies and errors at unmentioned locations in the state, and failed to provide any evidence to substantiate their claim.
In one case, the GOP & Cult of Trump want the counting stopped. In another, they want it to continue, and in yet another, they got what they wanted before they asked, and now they don’t like it.
Recount process in Ga. faces objections from Trump, GOP
by Mark Niesse, Tamar Hallerman, Amanda C. Coyne
The recount aims to verify election results reported so far in Georgia, where 16 electoral votes are at stake. Joe Biden held a 14,000-vote lead over Donald Trump as of Thursday morning.
Elections workers across the state are expected to work through the weekend to finish the labor-intensive task before the deadline.
Here’s what you need to know:
6:53 p.m.
Trump, Republicans complain about recount procedures
President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Georgia Republican Party raised objections Thursday to the state’s recount process, saying it doesn’t satisfy their demands for a hand count.
They wrote in a letter to their fellow Republican, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, that they have “serious concerns regarding the training and directives” for how the hand count will be conducted.
The letter seeks a re-review of absentee ballot signatures because the number of ballot rejections reported so far is lower than in the 2018 election. Ballot rejections declined in part because Georgia law changed to eliminate the requirement for voters to write in their birth years or addresses on ballot envelopes, instead only mandating their signatures.
In addition, the Republicans sought greater access for partisan monitors, more public notice before the recount begins Friday and strengthened ballot security protocols.
The secretary of state’s office gave no indication it plans to change recount procedures.
Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system manager, said Thursday that the process will be safe.
“This office spends a heck of a lot of time on making sure that the equipment involved is secure,” Sterling said. “The decentralized nature of votes in Georgia is a security measure in and of itself. It’s 159 counties. There’s not a single target.”
The county with the most votes in Georgia will begin its state-ordered recount on Saturday.
Fulton County will count by hand its 528,000 presidential ballots, which accounts for about 10.5% of the state’s entire tally.
The county sent a news release early Thursday evening saying the count will start Saturday at 7 a.m. and “continue daily” from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Wednesday.
The audit will be conducted “within public view” of the public, press and assigned party monitors, according to the news release. The tallying with be livestreamed, and the county is calling upon about 300 people to count ballots.
Gwinnett County is still finalizing the details for its manual recount, but elections officials have set the start time for 9 a.m. Friday, in part because they have to set up tables and equipment to accommodate the count.
Gwinnett has more than 416,000 votes to count by hand over the course of six days. The process will occur in the county elections warehouse, said county spokesman Joe Sorenson.
The county isn’t yet sure how many people it’ll need to complete the recount by the Wednesday midnight deadline, or how long officials will have to work each day, Sorenson said. Elections department employees and poll workers are expected to conduct the count, and local political parties can appoint official observers to watch the process.
DeKalb plans to start recount Saturday, Fulton details TBD
Our colleague Tyler Estep reports that DeKalb County plans to begin its manual recount of the presidential election at 7 a.m. Saturday.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had said counties should begin their work by 9 a.m. Friday. But DeKalb elections director Erica Hamilton said during a Thursday afternoon elections board meeting that more time is needed to get things in order.
“There’s a lot of coordination which has to occur,” county attorney Viviane Ernstes said, referencing public safety measures and “the sanctity of moving those boxes” of ballots.
Hamilton said the plan is for the recount to take place from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day at the former Sam’s Club building off Turner Hill Road in Stonecrest until the work is complete. The plan is to utilize two shifts of 150 poll workers, who will work in pairs to complete the separating and counting of ballots.
Meanwhile, few details were available about the recount in Fulton County, the state’s largest trove of voters. A Fulton spokeswoman said the county was creating its plan and expected to release details later Thursday.
2:35 p.m.
Helpful primer on Georgia’s recount system
In case you have any lingering questions about how Georgia’s recount process will work, here’s a really digestible (and cute) primer the Secretary of State’s office showed county elections officials this morning:
The video was made by the organization VotingWorks, an election audit software company working with the state.
2:13 p.m.
Recount process explained
Many metro Atlanta counties are still determining when they’ll begin manually recounting hundreds of thousands of votes. They must do so by 9 a.m. Friday, the state’s mandatory start time.
Cobb County will begin the process at 9 a.m. Friday at the Jim Miller Park Event Center in Marietta. Gwinnett County expects to start at 9 a.m. in its elections warehouse. But Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties had not announced their timelines by 1 p.m. Thursday.
The count will involve dozens of elections department workers and poll officials, and it will likely last through the weekend and into next week.
Votes will be recounted in batches of 100 or less, with a two-person audit board handling each batch. Most counties will have multiple audit boards running at once to expedite the process. The state will recommend how many each should have in order to finish the count by the Wednesday midnight deadline.
“I want you to be very deliberate in your counting,” Vander Roest said. “Take your time.”
Each audit board will work at its own table, where staffers will stack the ballots by candidate. There will be separate stacks for votes for President Donald Trump, President-elect Joe Biden, Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen, write-in candidates and ballots with no presidential vote or an “overvote” — when a voter selects more than one candidate in a race requiring a single choice. Both members of the audit team should be counting together to verify the accuracy of their count, said Ginny Vander Roest, an election implementation manager with election audit software company VotingWorks.
Once each batch is complete, vote totals will be logged and ballots will be moved to secure containers for safekeeping.
“These ballots are the currency of the election,” Chris Harvey, the state’s elections director, said in a Thursday training webinar. “They need to be protected at all times.”
Monica Childers, a product manager with VotingWorks, recommended counties start with absentee ballots first before moving on to votes cast in person during early voting and on Election Day. Absentee ballots are filled out by hand, while early and Election Day votes are cast using machines. That means absentee ballots will likely be less uniform and may need closer scrutiny if a voter’s choice is not obvious. A superintendent will be designated to break ties if the members of an audit board disagree about a ballot.
Audit boards are only checking for presidential vote selection; they are not counting any down-ballot races or verifying signatures.
1:51 p.m.
Secretary of state self-quarantining
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is self-quarantining after his wife tested positive for COVID-19, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Raffensperger, 65, will get tested himself this afternoon. His exposure comes as the state is beginning a manual recount of more than 5 million presidential ballots. Counties were able to begin the process Thursday afternoon, and must start by Friday at 9 a.m. The recount must be finished Wednesday at midnight. Raffensperger will likely still be quarantining by then, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend a 14-day quarantine period for anyone who has had close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
11/11/2020 — Atlanta, Georgia — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks with Georgia county elections directors without a face mask following a press briefing outside of the Georgia State Capitol building in downtown Atlanta, Wednesday, November 11, 2020. (Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com)
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
1:02 p.m.
Georgia prepares for hand recount
The large, statewide hand recount of the nearly 5 million ballots cast in Georgia’s presidential race must start in every county by Friday morning and finish by Wednesday at midnight, state election officials said Thursday.
The recount aims to verify election results reported so far in Georgia. Joe Biden held a 14,000-vote lead over Donald Trump as of Thursday morning.
“The sooner you can get this started, the easier this will go,” said Monica Childers, a product manager with election audit software company VotingWorks, on a Thursday training call.
Elections workers across the state are expected to work through the weekend in order finish before the deadline.
“Frankly, I don’t see how many people cannot work on the weekends to get this done,” said Elections Director Chris Harvey.
Teams of election workers will check voters choices for each candidate and report results.
The recount will require human review of nearly 5 million ballots, stacked into piles sorted for each candidate and then tallied in each county.
Georgia has never conducted a statewide recount of paper ballots before, and it wasn’t possible before this year when the state added paper ballots to the process. Previous recounts were conducted by recalculating vote counts stored on computers.
The recount is certain to be a labor-intensive process starting just eight days before the Nov. 20 deadline for Georgia’s final results to be certified by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. At stake are Georgia’s 16 votes in the Electoral College, which is scheduled to meet to cast votes for president Dec. 14.
Raffensperger announced the recount Wednesday following demands from Trump’s defenders and calls for his resignation from his fellow Republicans, Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
Details of how the recount will be conducted were expected to be announced Thursday morning. Then county election officials can begin.
Observers from the Republican and Democratic parties will be present to oversee the process.
The recount will be conducted under Georgia’s new audit rules, which require election workers to review the printed text or filled-in bubbles on each ballot. Ballots won’t be rescanned by computers.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, November 22, 2020
The article should instead be headlined:
“Former Hong Kong University Post-Doctoral Student And Chinese YouTuber Start False Coronavirus Rumor, Steven Bannon And Fugitive Chinese Billionaire Amplify Message”
How Steve Bannon and a Chinese Billionaire Created a Right-Wing Coronavirus Media Sensation
by Amy Qin, Vivian Wang and Danny Hakim
Friday, November 20, 2020, 7:10 AM CST
Dr. Li-Meng Yan wanted to remain anonymous. It was mid-January, and Yan, a researcher in Hong Kong, had been hearing rumors about a dangerous new virus in mainland China that the government was playing down. Terrified for her personal safety and career, she reached out to her favorite Chinese YouTube host, known for criticizing the Chinese government.
Within days, the host was telling his 100,000 followers that the coronavirus had been deliberately released by the Chinese Communist Party. He wouldn’t name the whistleblower, he said, because officials could make the person “disappear.”
By September, Yan had abandoned caution. She appeared in the United States on Fox News, making the unsubstantiated claim to millions that the coronavirus was a bioweapon manufactured by China.
Overnight, Yan became a right-wing media sensation, with top advisers to President Donald Trump and conservative pundits hailing her as a hero. Nearly as quickly, her interview was labeled on social media as containing “false information,” while scientists rejected her research as a polemic dressed up in jargon.
Her evolution was the product of a collaboration between two separate but increasingly allied groups that peddle misinformation: a small but active corner of the Chinese diaspora and the highly influential far right in the United States.
Each saw an opportunity in the pandemic to push its agenda. For the diaspora, Yan and her unfounded claims provided a cudgel for those intent on bringing down China’s government. For American conservatives, they played to rising anti-Chinese sentiment and distracted from the Trump administration’s bungled handling of the outbreak.
Both sides took advantage of the dearth of information coming out of China, where the government has refused to share samples of the virus and has resisted a transparent, independent investigation. Its initial cover-up of the outbreak has further fueled suspicion about the origins of the virus.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, November 22, 2020
This is your President, America. Revel in the moment when you elected an incompetent idiot.
Surely, this surprises exactly… NO ONE.
Perhaps we should take to calling POS45 the Liar in Chief/Liar n’ Thief, either “Loserman,” or “L-POTUS” for Loser-POTUS.
Remember: In the topsy-turvy surreality world of the Narcissist in Chief, losers win, and winners lose – and he never loses.
America, you voted for a goddamn sicko, a genuinely mentally ill motherfucker, who has weakened America in the eyes of her enemies, and in the eyes of her allies.
Trump is a true Piece Of Shit 45.
Maybe, if the world is lucky, if there’s any justice at all, after he leaves office, he’ll be indicted at the Federal and State levels, prosecuted and convicted, and bankrupted. Hell… maybe even he’ll die, or be incapacitated quickly.
Oh!
And THANKS for praying for him!
“Let his years be few; let someone else take his position.”
Psalm 109:8 (NLT)
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Election officials in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin’s most populous county, reported that so-called observers with the Trump Campaign were interfering with legal operations by obstructing the recount of legally-cast ballots, and were also attempting to obstruct a recount of the presidential results by objecting to every ballot tabulators randomly pulled to count.
Trump requested a recount in the heavily liberal counties of Milwaukee and Dane hoping to “undo” the Democrat Joe Biden’s victory margin of 20,600 votes. Never in state history has there ever been a recount in elections with such a large margin of victory, and legal experts say that Trump’s strategy is widely perceived as attemping an eventual court challenge, part of an effort in 6 key states – AZ, GA, MI, NV, PA, WI – to “undo” his election loss.
Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said that a steady stream of constant complaints by Republicans in Milwaukee County was significantly delaying the recount, and that many Trump “observers/objectors/obstructors” were violating rules by constantly interrupting vote counters with questions and comments.
Remarking that observers from the Trump campaign “clearly don’t know what they are doing,” he characterized their bad behavior saying “that’s unacceptable.”
Milwaukee County Election Commissioner, Tim Posnanski, reported to his fellow commissioners that Trump campaign representatives were violating rules by Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Today, Wednesday, 18 November 2020, Georgia’s Appointed Senator, multimillionairess Kelly Loeffler flagrantly violated Federal Campaign Finance laws, and Senate ethics rules by requesting/seeking/soliciting campaign contributions/donations for herself while on Senate property.
Senate Rules PROHIBIT any kind of political or candidate fundraising on U.S. Government/Congress property.
“Well, look… we know that hundreds of millions of dark, liberal money is pouring into our state. That’s why it’s so important that everyone across the country get involved. They can visit Kelly for Senate dot com, to chip in five, or ten bucks, and get involved, volunteer…”
– Appointed Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler on Fox News program “America’s Newsroom,” Wednesday, 18 October 2020
Senate resources may only be used for official purposes.
No official resources may be used to conduct campaign activities.
In addition to this general prohibition, there are several criminal statutes that impose additional restrictions on campaign activities by Senate Members and staff:
No Campaign Activity in a Federal Building
Senate Members and staff may not receive or solicit campaign contributions in any federal building.
While it’s unclear exactly how much she paid for the jet, which seats 8 passengers and can travel 3000 nautical miles, essentially coast-to-coast on one fill-up, an online listing of other such jets for the same year, make, and model, in an online listing shows $9.7 million to be an average asking price.
Kelly Loeffler’s Bombardier jet N830EC
Trump’s tax cuts essentially made private jets flying tax shelters for the wealthy. Under his changes, the entire purchase price of a new or used aircraft bought by a company can be a 100% tax deductible write-off against its earnings.
What the multi-millionaress did, was to create an “ownership trust” which is a company that owns the plane, rather than herself personally. By so doing, it offers some degree of anonymity by giving it the appearance of isolation from the individuals whom actually control it. Essentially, it’s a type of “shell company” set up exclusively for the purpose of ownership, and nothing else. It’s greatest single benefit? It helps avoid taxes.
Shell companies, while not illegal, per se, and can have legitimate uses, often deliberately “fly under the radar” to avoid payment of taxes, or for money laundering purposes, and are registered in the names of the attorneys or accountants who manage them, thus avoiding any readily identifiable connection with the person who truly owns it or benefits from it. Most often, shell companies are incorporated in nations with tax laws favorable to them, aka “tax havens,” which by law do not have to report income such as in Cayman Islands, Seychelles, Panama, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Belize, or other island or “offshore” nations.
The so-called “Panama Papers,” also sometimes called the “Mossack Fonseca papers” for the name of the obscure Panamanian law firm from which they were obtained, is a collection of well over 11.5 million documents identifying 214,488 entities and shell corporations, their owners, lawyers, and the often-illegal network established to manage them, which were made public in 2016.
Each aircraft has a registration number, often called a “tail number,” which is like an automobile license plate, or VIN, because it identifies an aircraft uniquely from among all other aircraft, under a system managed by the Federal Aviation Administration, and used in other nations. But unlike cars’ license plates which require regular periodic renewal (license plates essentially prove a tax has been paid), the tail number stays with the aircraft permanently, and is never reassigned to any other aircraft. So when a plane is sold, retired, or crashes, the number always accompanies the craft to identify it, regardless of its disposition.
N830EC, Kelly Loeffler’s Bombardier model BD-100-1A10 jet
There are some limitations on registration of aircraft in the United States to foreign individuals and/or corporations, however, which is to say, that unlike ocean-going vessels such as cruise ships, or cargo ships, under United States law, aircraft which are either majority or fully owned by foreign individuals or interests cannot be registered in the United States to be assigned a “N number,” aka “tail number.” An overview of the requirements and limitations can be found on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website here: https://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/aircraft_certification/aircraft_registry/register_aircraft/.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, November 12, 2020
👈This is a screenshot of a now-deleted Tweet from an actual White Republican Mississippi State Representative – Price Wallace – who was elected to represent MS State House District 77, Mendenhall.
Sadly, the mofo doesn’t even know the difference in SECEDE and SUCCEED. Maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t confuzalate it with suck seed.😳😂
And apparently, he’s either forgotten history, or skipped school during Civil War history week.
“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery
– the greatest material interest of the world.”
Spoiler warning: They tried that once; it was phenomenally unsuccessful.
But let’s play along, and briefly think about the “bigger picture” of his bad idea.
When compared to the other 49 states, Mississippi’s economy is:
Ranked between Guam and Puerto Rico in Per Capita GDP.
48th overall in the U.S. in Quality of Life.
49th in High School Graduation Rates.
50th in Healthcare Access & Quality.
48th in Public Health.
48th in Economy.
46th in Education.
45th in Infrastructure.
44th in Fiscal Stability.
Now, close your eyes and imagine if it “succeeded” from the Union… and lost all the Federal money it now gets.
In actuality, what we have here, is a duly-elected Public Official advocating treason against the United States. Isn’t there a law against that kind of crap?
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, November 10, 2020
“Fact checking” is a relatively new phenomenon, having become necessitated by the seemingly incessant barrage of lies, falsehoods, fabrications, exaggerations, and otherwise untrue remarks, comments, statements, insinuations, and innuendo of the President and those in the near vicinity of, and within the orbit of his warped, demented, corrupted, and perverted “inner circle.”
Had there been no POS45 President, there’d have been no need for “fact checkers,” per se – at least not in the sense to which we’ve so quickly become accustomed to them… including their imposters.
Thom Hartmann
The comments of most people can be taken at face value, that they’re true, and if they’re exaggerated, at least the exaggeration is clearly understood by the listener/hearer. And even if the content shared was biased, that too, was clearly understood, even if it was reported upon, relayed or conveyed by a third party – disinterested, or not.
As an aside, in that vein of truth-telling, there are at least two entertaining and fun-to-watch motion pictures which stories are based upon the premise of truth-telling. In one, everyone in society tells the truth, or at least is incapable of lying, save for one individual – Ricky Gervais, in the 2009 comedy “The Invention of Lying.” In another, the protagonist is temporarily rendered incapable of saying anything other than the truth – the 1997 comedy “Liar Liar,” starring Jim Carrey.
But as we have all sadly come to understand – some later, while others early on – is that when Donald John Trump speaks, he is “not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him,” and when Donald John Trump “lies, he speaks his native language” with a forked tongue. And according to those who continue to track his prevarications, as of the last update August 27, 2020, the Current White House Occupant had uttered a total of 22,247 false or misleading claims in 1,316 days as the nation’s Chief Executive.
Despite the overwhelming and incontrovertible abundance of evidence of their innocence, the nation’s current Chief Executive maintains the false assertion of their guilt. Perhaps the Earth is flat, after all, eh?
And then, there’s the matter of a Federal Class Action lawsuit against him and his eponymous, now-defunct “university” which evidence found was nothing but a scam, a fraudulent, deceptive, shyster, high-pressure bait-and-switch criminal organization, which case was eventually settled for $25 million.
“You belong to your father, the devil,
and you want to carry out your father’s desires.
He was a murderer from the beginning,
not holding to the truth,
for there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks his native language,
for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
– Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded in John 8:44 (NIV)
But again, more the point, and that being the veracity of remarks made by Thom Hartmann, a longtime renown liberal radio show host, and author, and speaker.
“When Donald Trump first decided to run for president, he confided to friends that his real goal was to get publicity for his brand and squeeze a larger payment out of NBC for his TV show. He even bragged that he’d be the first person to make money running for the White House.
In the story below, read for yourselves the inconsistencies in the various states on the single topic of election voting recounts. And those are just the handful of states in which the race is “too close to call,” per se, even though some have already been “called” by the Associated Press – though their call is NOT OFFICIAL. Their call is, however, widely respected because of its veracity and consistency. And to be widely respected for those reasons is good.
Point being, is that in the 7 states mentioned below, there are 7 DIFFERENT laws.
Here’s an example of something that would be a good compromise:
I think that it’s a good practice to be able to have requests for recounts by the interested parties, i.e., the candidates, rather than being court-ordered. In states where recounts may be requested by either candidate (the requestor), and in which the state pays, that could be modified to be a shared expense, borne in equal parts by the requestor(s) and the state, and perhaps even, in the case of a Federal election, in an equal third part by the U.S. Government. But again, these are things that merit, warrant and deserve significant further discussion.
There is LITERALLY NO SENSE in having 50 DIFFERENT sets of laws governing something common to us all as citizens – voting. If our nation had a National Uniform Voting Standards law, it would help establish unity in our nation, by creating uniformity, and it would similarly streamline many states’ operations, as well as significantly reducing questionable matters, and increase efficiency.
Georgia is heading for a recount over close Trump-Biden race. How does that work? How long will it take?
By Karina Zaiets, and Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY
Updated 8:24 a.m. CST Nov. 9, 2020
On Friday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said the state would have a recount because of the slim vote margin. The margin is currently 0.2% with 99% of votes counted. The state had about 4,169 votes left to count, according to Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system implementation manager. A [full statewide] recount could take until the end of the month, he noted.
Sterling said counties will hand-count a deck of ballots as a test, which will then be sent through high-speed scanners located at the central county elections office. If the tallies match and the election workers determine the scanner is working accurately, every single ballot will then be rescanned. According to AP’s research, there have been at least 31 statewide recounts since 2000. And of those, only three changed the outcome of the election. The initial margins in those races were all under 300 votes.
Rules for recounting
The laws governing recounts vary by state and a handful of states do not offer a recount process at all. Here are the rules in key states:
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, November 9, 2020
The Kremlin has been conspicuously silent following the news of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.
The leaders of many of America’s long-time allies and other friendly nations have expressed their congratulations and well-wishes to the Democratic victor in a hard-fought campaign against a candidate who is the exemplification and very personification of evil, who has weakened America, and made her an international laughingstock.
Recently, the Russian’s official mouthpiece for Trump’s good friend and buddy, Vladimir Putin, said it would be “premature” to extend congratulations to Joe Biden for winning the election since the results are not yet official.
Yeah… right. Whatever you say, Vladimir. That’s like saying you won’t wish someone a happy birthday because their birthday is tomorrow, even though many others are. Don’t worry… tomorrow will arrive. And in the mean time, you just look either stupid, or suspicious.
But Putin is a top spy for Russia. He headed up the KGB – the notorious spy agency is now called the GRU. Those sons of bitches haven’t gotten any kinder, or nicer. They’d just as soon poison you as look at you. Deaths by poisoning and other so-called “mysterious” deaths are their specialty.
And just because they’re allegedly “not communist” anymore doesn’t mean a damn thing. With them, it’s Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, November 9, 2020
America has a NEW President!
Despite efforts by malign internal actors, heads of government agencies, individuals who are domestic enemies of our Constitution and of The People, who abused governmental resources to thwart freedom…
The People have SPOKEN LOUDLY.
Vice President Joe Biden, Official Portrait 2013
Democratic principles, honesty and the rule of law have worked AGAIN.
Our democratic republic is STRONG!!
Liberty is POWERFUL!
Evil is defeated!
Our United States of America has a NEW PRESIDENT-elect!
In response, a longtime friend and colleague wrote “Not for long , the dead people and illegals that spoke will be discredited.”
My friend, the false and malicious things you wrote are not only lies, but they’re old lies – VERY OLD. One would think that you’re stuck in a time warp of some kind.
What concerns me about your outdatedness, is that the truth of what I wrote, that in this election, something happened which has NEVER BEFORE happened, which is individuals who are OFFICIAL AGENTS of the United States Government, as malign actors, abused their high office, and ACTIVELY played roles to DELIBERATELY thwart freedom, and The People’s Right To Vote.
That was done by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy through the United States Postal Service Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, November 4, 2020
In response to the President’s most recent false claims made at a quickly-convened 2:35 AM Wednesday early morning campaign press conference in the White House, that counting legally-cast ballots in states like Pennsylvania “is a major fraud on our nation,” numerous Republican leaders have suddenly not only openly contradicted his false and maliciously scurrilous remarks, but blatantly repudiated them in some cases. For some, it’s a rare occurrence to criticize him, or to bite the political hand that feeds them, for those presently in office.
“So we won there, we lead [present tense] by 76,000 votes, with almost nothing left. And all of a sudden, everything just stopped. This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election… frankly, we did win this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation. This is a very big moment. This is a major fraud on our nation. We want… the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list, okay? It’s, it’s a very sad… it’s a very sad moment. To me, this a very sad moment. And… we will win this, and as far as I’m concerned, we already have won it. So I just want to thank you.”
• Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky: “Claiming you’ve won the election is different from finishing the counting.”
• Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on ABC News: “There’s just no basis to make that argument tonight. There just isn’t. All these votes have to be counted that are in now. You have to let the process play itself out before you judge it to be flawed. And by prematurely doing this, if there is a flaw later, he has undercut his own credibility. So I think it’s a bad strategic decision, it’s a bad political decision, and it’s not the kind of decision you would expect someone to make tonight who holds the position he holds.”
• Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger replied on Twitter:
“Stop. Full stop. The votes will be counted and you will either win or lose. When the results are confirmed, we must accept the outcomes with respect for our democracy.”
• Florida Senator Marco Rubio remarked on Twitter:
“Taking days to count legally cast votes is NOT fraud.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Previously entitled as: “Is this your “WTF America?!?” moment?”
As these words are being composed, it’s Wednesday morning, November 4, 2020.
Yesterday was the General Election.
Voters went to the polls nationwide to decide if they’d had enough, or if they wanted 4 more years.
Turnout was at all-time highs – literally. Not since 1908 has there been such voter participation. And for the greatest part, things went off without a hitch… despite what the incumbent Chief Executive said, whom is the current occupant of the public housing located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
There were at least 2 improbabilities for both candidates:
• Impeachment of the POTUS – impeached presidents have never been re-elected (there are now only 3 – Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998 during his 2nd term, and Trump in 2019, while Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 during his 2nd term before he could be impeached), and;
• For the challenger, the fact that historically, aside from succession, former Vice Presidents have not won election as President. Of the 13 former VPs who ever became POTUS, 8 were from Presidential succession, while the remaining 5 were elected in their own right. That’s 5/45, or 11.1% – and they were: John Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren, Nixon, and G.H.W. Bush.
And, as things now stand, there are states which – as the Associated Press characterizes it – are “too close call.” Among them, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Michigan.
Florida has gone to the incumbent, so says the AP, and was a “must win” for the first term Republican President in order to stay competitive.
At the moment, the Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, appears to be leading in Electoral College votes with 227 to the incumbent’s 213.
As things now appear, the election will be a squeaker, and regardless of which candidate wins, neither party will have a clear “mandate” from The People by which to govern.
A billboard on I-65 in Horse Cave, KY. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
The Senate, which previously had a narrow GOP majority, is likely still in the tight-fisted little hands of Read the rest of this entry »
By Ryan J. Reilly, Senior Justice Reporter, HuffPost
Monday, November 2, 2020, 4:45 AM CST
The Justice Department can’t take four more years of President Donald Trump.
Scores of former department officials from both political parties said that the severe damage inflicted by the president on the department and its components over the past four years will become permanent and irreversible if Trump wins a second term. The result, they said, would be a fundamental subjugation of the rule of law and the transformation of the department into an overtly political operation.
No president since Richard Nixon has had as much of a negative effect on the Justice Department as Trump. He fired one FBI director and is considering firing another. He pushed out his first attorney general and is engaging in a public campaign to pressure current Attorney General William Barr to investigate his chief political rival, Joe Biden, hinting that he might dismiss Barr if he doesn’t.
“As bad as that has been over the past four years, it would be obviously even worse over the next four years,” Greg Brower, the FBI’s former congressional liaison and a Republican appointed by President George W. Bush as Nevada’s top federal prosecutor, told HuffPost.
“I worry a great deal about what they would do with another four years in power,” former Attorney General Eric Holder told HuffPost. “People need to understand that there’s no doubt that the Department of Justice is on the ballot this year.”
A number of former U.S. attorneys who were appointed by Republican presidents ― including a man who served as both FBI and CIA director under President Ronald Reagan ― agreed. They condemned Trump, whom they called “a threat to the rule of law in our country,” and endorsed former Vice President Biden, who they said would “refocus the Justice Department on the cause of impartial justice” and help address the country’s “deep-seated societal issues.”
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have hammered home that justice is on the ballot in 2020,” said Julie Zebrak, a former Justice Department official turned political consultant. “Four more years of manipulating DOJ to serve the president’s personal agenda — and personal vendettas — could very well bring the department to the point of no return.”
Indeed, for many Justice Department employees who endured four years of the Trump administration, the outcome of the election will determine the future of their careers. Significant brain drain is a near certainty if Trump wins another term.
A White House spokesman did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Holder said that four years of Trump had done “substantial” but recoverable harm to the Justice Department. He’s not so sure if Trump wins reelection.
“After eight years you would have such structural damage done to the department that I really worry about the ability of a new administration [in 2024] to actually repair the damage that would’ve been done after eight years under Donald Trump,” Holder said.
Uncharted Waters
A few days before the 2016 election, a journalist shot off an email to his fellow reporters on the Justice Department beat, proposing Election Day drinks. It had been an unusual few months on a beat that was usually calm in the run-up to a presidential election, in part because of policies meant to prevent the department from affecting elections.
“Once every four years, it is certain that DOJ/FBI reporters will have a quiet few weeks before Election Day,” the reporter wrote. “That promise was stolen from us.”
There was FBI Director James Comey’s highly unusual press conference on Hillary Clinton’s emails in July, followed by the discovery of emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop, which threw the whole campaign into chaos just days before the election. Ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election had mostly faded into the background. The focus was on Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, November 1, 2020
How many voting-related laws are there in our allegedly “united” United States?
You’d likely be shocked to find out.
Maybe, maybe not.
And frankly, I don’t know how many voting related laws there are in our nation, and I’ve neither read, nor heard of any compendium on the subject, nor have I ever heard anyone directly or indirectly address the topic.
But, laws are finite – there are only a fixed amount at any given time – so it’s entirely possible to make a reasoned determination of that number. So let’s work it this way:
There are 3141 counties and county equivalents in the 50 United States.
If each county or county equivalent had only 1 law pertaining to voting related matters, that’d be 3141 laws.
If each state had only one law pertaining to any voting-related matter, there would be at least 50 laws.
So, if the 90,095 total general-purpose governments and special districts, 3141 counties/county equivalents and 50 states each had only 1 voting-related law, that’d be a GRAND TOTAL of 93,286 laws.
But I assure you, there are MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY MORE than just one voting-related law in each of those areas.
So, purely for illustration purposes, let’s just hypothetically say there are at LEAST 100 voting-related laws in each of the 50 United States. Doing the math, that’s 50 x 100 = 5000. Again, that’s at a minimum.
But, what if there are 200 voting-related laws in each of the 50 United States?
That’d be 10,000 voting-related laws. And that’s only at the state level.
Perhaps already you’re beginning to “get the picture,” to understand the size, scope, nature, and extent of the problem.
And to be utterly certain, and without question, the problem is the variety and number of voting-related laws, many of which are contradictory among them.
There’s LITERALLY NO justifiable, commonsensical, rational reason to have so many DIFFERENT – even blatantly contradictory – laws on just one subject over which the Federal government has ultimate authority.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, October 29, 2020
GOP Texas Senator Ted Cruz, member of the Senate Commerce Committee, moments before he screamed at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey via remote hearing about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Once again, Ted Cruz turns in a great performance, and quite possibly may be nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for the same.
But yesterday, the Asshole from Texas, aka Republican Senator Ted Cruz, made an ass out of himself.
No surprise there, eh?
Nobody likes Cruz. Recall that in 2016, former Speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner (OH-8) called him “Lucifer in the flesh.” Additional diatribes against Cruz may be found at the conclusion of this article.
Ted WILL make a run for the Presidency again, so he’s just posturing. After all, it IS election season, and even though he’s not on an election ticket, per se, he is on the ticket. And just 2 years ago (2018), Cruz just barely escaped being replaced by Democratic challenger Representative Beto O’Rourke (TX-16) – 50.9% to 48.3% of 8,371,655 ballots cast.
In fact, the entire GOP slate is on the ticket nationwide this year. And so far, it’s not looking good. It didn’t look good yesterday, either. The “optics” aren’t good, goes the saying about political appearances.
In short, Jeff Kossett describes it as the “26 words that created the Internet.”
Who is Jeff Kossett?
Jeff Kossett is Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity Law at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and is one of the nation’s foremost experts on Section 230. Regarding the law, he said, “Section 230 set the legal framework for the Internet that we know today that relies heavily on user content rather than content that companies create. Without Section 230, companies would not be willing to take so many risks.”
The law, written in 1996, modified the 1996 Communications Decency Act, is short, sweet, and to the point.
“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
But this hearing was pure grandstanding from the get-go.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Seems ol’ Teddy Boy got hot under the collar at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey during a Senatorial hearing today, Wednesday, 28 October 2020, which was conducted remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Frustrated at the responses, Ted Cruz screamed out at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey,
“Who the hell elected you? Why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC, silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs?”
Ol’ Ted should remember that “Freedom of Speech and of the Press” (First Amendment Rights) do NOT apply to businesses.
Only to the government.
The Press – and for all practical purposes, Twitter is considered part of the Press – is free to publish, or not, what they want. They are free to censor as much as they like, or not.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, October 28, 2020
“He’s left a ballooning debt, and deficit.
He’s left a hollowed-out government
with
positions unfilled,
a diplomatic corps that’s
lost morale,
an intelligence agency that
has been torn apart
with
how it can advise the President.
He’s left a wake of destruction behind him.
That is his legacy.”
–– V. Kim Hoggard, high-level official, Reagan & GHW Bush administrations, on POTUS Donald John Trump
If the GOP suffers – and they will – blame Trump.
This is your President, America. Revel in the moment when you elected an incompetent idiot.
If the GOP suffers – and they will – blame the GOP.
There’s plenty of blame to go around.
The GOP could have decertified him, and thereby could have prevented him from advancing… but, they did not.
The GOP really doesn’t care for you, or for America.
They only care for their BIG BUSINESS interests and BIG MONEY donors.
And to be certain, there are some Democrats like that – Hillary among them. But those old dinosaurs are dying off politically – thank goodness – and Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Merrick Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama in March 2016. The Senate never voted on his nomination.
Led by Republican Senate Majority Leader “Moscow Mitch” McConnell, the Senate took no action on POTUS Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick B. Garland on March 16, 2016.
The last time the Senate had NOT considered a SCOTUS nominee was 61 years 4 months 8 days prior with Harlan Johnson, who was nominated by Dwight D. Eisenhower on November 9, 1954.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, October 25, 2020
If you have family and friends whom reside in Mississippi, the following will be of particular interest to you.
If not, it will still be of significant interest. We’ll explain why momentarily.
First, some background.
This year, Mississippians will have the opportunity to vote on whether, or not, they want to avail themselves, their loved ones, and friends, of the opportunity to use cannabis to treat the symptoms of their diseases.
The bill which would bring Medical Marijuana to Mississippi is called Initiative 65. The bill is fully written, and is not a mere hollow proposal. Establishing a complete infrastructure, Initiative 65 thoroughly lays out the plans by and through which cannabis would become available to medically qualifying Mississippians, including the regulatory agency and mechanism, the taxation structure, prescriptive authority, distributive network, farming and production facilities, product safety testing mandates, and more.
Mississippi, like some other states, has a public initiative process by and through which citizens have the ability to facilitate legislative action outside of their legislature. It is a direct type of democratic involvement, which for them is ensconced in their State Constitution. The Mississippi Secretary of State’s website writes explicitly that, “The Mississippi initiative law affords voters an avenue for addressing important constitutional issues which the State Legislature does not.”
The site further references the qualifying conditions that must be met in order for any prospective measure to be placed on the ballot – and win – by stating that,
“for an initiative measure to be placed on the ballot, a minimum of 106,190 certified signatures must be gathered with at least 21,238 certified signatures from each of the five congressional districts as they existed in the year 2000. Signatures must be certified by county circuit clerks. A completed petition is filed with the Secretary of State’s Office, along with a $500 filing fee. Not only must an initiative receive a majority of the total votes cast for that particular initiative, it must also receive more than 40% of the total votes cast in that election.”
Suffice it to say, the state law establishes a very high standard which prospective initiative measures must meet in order for them to be placed on the ballot, and then to pass. Whereas in most other states, a simple majority is often all that’s required for any candidate or measure to win, or to pass, in Mississippi, that state’s Initiative Law requires that IN ADDITION TO meeting all other qualifying conditions, it must be voted upon by AT LEAST 40.1% of all voters/ballots cast.
For purposes of illustration – if there are 100 TOTAL voters/ballots cast in an election, and only 30 out of the 100 voters voted on the measure (called an “undervote,” a condition in which all voters do not bother to vote on a particular race or measure), and voted for it to pass, and the nay votes were -0- (zero), despite the 30-0 victory margin, it will NOT pass, because it did NOT “receive more than 40% of the total votes cast in that election.”
Again, despite the fact that more voters voted FOR the measure to pass, than voted against it (which in this example would be zero -0-), or did NOT vote upon it, the measure still would not be considered to have passed.
Comprised of 76 diverse individuals from a variety of backgrounds including Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and Professors, Registered Nurses, Republican and Democratic politicians, Party Executive Committee members, State Legislators, and Local Officials from both major parties, Ministers, retired Military Service members, Business Owners and Executives, District Attorneys, retired Law Enforcement Officers, and more, they are the members of the steering committee which are guiding the measure called Initiative 65 which, if approved by voters, would establish a Medical Marijuana Law in Mississippi.
Initiative 65 is a well-though-out bill, one which is thoroughly considered, and the bill for the prospective measure contains practically every aspect of consideration which would be involved in establishing an entire infrastructure for Medical Marijuana.
Over the years, in over 20 attempts, the state’s legislators quashed every effort to help the people, and not once did they ever Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, October 24, 2020
When in the history of our nation have you EVER heard of ANY President denigrating the FBI and other agencies of the United States government – for ANY reason whatsoever?
So, what’s the endgame for the far right?
Total anarchy & chaos, or are they actually going for an authoritarian state?
What’s the difference between “Big Government” and autocracy?
The derisive term “big government” is one used by anti-government anarchists, even though they’d NEVER call themselves that. But then again, White Supremacists don’t call themselves anti-Constitutional terrorists, either.
Frankly, I have long maintained that, contrary to the numerous assertions we’ve heard spouted, our government is NOT “too big,” but rather is TOO SMALL to be either effective, or efficient.
Think of it in restaurant terms.
Go to a 5-star Michelin restaurant, and you’d expect to find only one cook, and one wait staff… right?
OF COURSE NOT!
For such a fine dining experience, with a patronage seating of 100 or so (minus bar space), it would be REASONABLE to have AT LEAST 25, or likely even more, staff of all kinds – ranging from maître d’hôtel, to sous chef, to chef de cuisine, to line cooks, kitchen porters, to wait staff, to sommelier, to bus staff, dishwashers, and others – including bartenders, runners, housekeepers, and more.
The beginning of America’s decline began in earnest with Ronald Reagan, who, in his grandfatherly-like tones, and “aw, shucks” disarming humor, won American’s hearts, and their minds followed. That included Democrats who voted for him in almost unprecedented numbers over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter who introduced America to Energy Independence, Energy Conservation, Renewable Energy, and placed solar collectors/solar hot water heater panels atop the White House… which were promptly removed by the Reagan administration.
In his first Inaugural Address, “the Great Communicator,” as he was monikered, stated bluntly that “government is the problem.” It never occurred to anyone that if government was the problem, the obvious solution that problem is the elimination of it. And that’s precisely what he and the GOP set out to do. But it wouldn’t be called treason.
Of course, as a VERY skilled orator, having traveled across America on GE’s dime years earlier, he frequently gave talks that were very much sympathetic to BIG BUSINESS interests, all couched in patriotic language.
With his blessing, and encouragement, and the insidiousness of Newt Gingrich of Georgia as Speaker of the House, and their misguided fallacious “Contract With America” the GOP began to Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, October 22, 2020
It’s a good thing that American Presidents don’t nominate weirdos or extremists for the Supreme Court.
Amy Coney Barrett as Hannibal Lector, the psychotic, psychopathic weirdo in the movie series “Silence of the Lambs.”
People who have 7 kids – adopted, or not – are certainly outside the norm.
As is forbidding the use of birth control – and that’s almost exclusively a religious matter.
And now that businesses can have religion, which god do they worship – Mammon? Was it the Commerce Clause that Jesus died for? Or, was it people?
But after all, “businesses are people, my friend.”
And since money is free speech, what’s next?
To be frank, being outside the norm is not illegal in the United States.
It’s not illegal to be a weirdo.
Goodness knows, there are plenty of them in all 50 states.
Belonging to a weird religious cult shouldn’t disqualify one for service – at least according to the Constitution, which has a renown “no religious test” clause.
I mean, we could have, and there is no legal compunction forbidding, Moonies to serve us in our government – any government, federal, state, or local – and, that’s perfectly A-okay according to the Constitution – as it should be.
People who believe the Earth is flat could serve us in government – and while there’s not a “no scientific test” clause in our Constitution, I would imagine that most reasonable people would agree that, like the Moonies, those who believe the Earth is flat are weirdos, and extremists.
People who believe in alchemy – the fraudulent and disproven notion that gold can be made from lead, various ores, or things that do not contain elemental gold – could be elected, or appointed, and serve us in our government.
Why, even those who have belonged to the Ku Klux Klan have served on the Supreme Court – Hugo Black, an Alabamian.
And the virulently infamous racist George C. Wallace was elected as Alabama’s governor FOUR times.
Revealed: Ex-members of Amy Coney Barrett faith group tell of trauma and sexual abuse
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner, in Washington, D.C.
Wednesday 21 Oct 2020, 0500 EDT
Last modified on Wednesday 21 Oct 2020, 2337 EDT
Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the supreme court has prompted former members of her secretive faith group, the People of Praise, to come forward and share stories about emotional trauma and – in at least one case – sexual abuse they claim to have suffered at the hands of members of the Christian group.
In the wake of the allegations, the Guardian has learned that the charismatic Christian organization, which is based in Indiana, has hired the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to conduct an “independent investigation” into sexual abuse claims on behalf of People of Praise.
The historic sexual abuse allegations and claims of emotional trauma do not pertain specifically to Barrett, who has been a lifelong member of the charismatic group, or her family.
But some former members who spoke to the Guardian said they were deeply concerned that too little was understood about the “community” of People of Praise ahead of Barrett’s expected confirmation by the Senate next week, after which she will hold the seat formerly held by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Two people familiar with the matter say that more than two dozen former members of the faith group, many of whom say they felt “triggered” by Barrett’s nomination, are participating in a support group to discuss how the faith group affected their lives.
“The basic premise of everything at the People of Praise was that the devil controlled everything outside of the community, and you were ‘walking out from under the umbrella of protection’ if you ever left,” said one former member who called herself Esther, who had to join the group as a child but then left the organization. “I was OK with it being in a tiny little corner of Indiana, because a lot of weird stuff happens in tiny little corners in this country. But it’s just unfathomable to me – I can’t even explain just how unfathomable it is – that you would have a supreme court justice who is a card-carrying member of this community.”
Barrett was not asked about her involvement in People of Praise during her confirmation hearings last week, and has never included her involvement with the group in Senate disclosure forms, but has in the past emphasized that her religious faith as a devout Catholic would not interfere with her impartiality.
People of Praise is rooted in the rise of charismatic Christian communities in the late 1960s and 1970s, which Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Amy Coney Barrett before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary for her nomination to the United States Supreme Court
Much has been made in recent days about Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the President’s nominee to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Barrett has her critics. I am one. But there are other criticisms, including of the rushed process, which I too, hold. Rushed things hardly ever have good results.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has indicated that the full Senate will most likely have a vote on Judge Barrett on Monday, 26 October 2020 – a mere 31 days since her nomination on 26 September 2020. In stark contrast, her initial nomination to the Federal judiciary took 5 months 24 days.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has published a paper entitled “Supreme Court Appointment Process: President’s Selection of a Nominee,” (R44235) first published on October 19, 2015, and updated periodically, and most recently on September 28, 2020, which answers some essentially basic questions about the nomination process, and provides background, and historical overview for the same. The “CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress.”
Regarding Judge Barrett’s Judicial “style” which she and others call “textualism,” and or “originalism,” it seems to me to be a rather bizarre way to think of the document which forms the foundation of our government, which has endured since it was written and ratified in the late 1700’s. Doubtless, the Founders, and those alive then could not begin to conceive of plucking stardust from an asteroid (which NASA recently did) to analyze, communicating instantaneously with someone on the opposite side of the globe using video teleconferencing on a hand-held device, traveling faster than the speed of sound, splitting the atom, and using laser light to communicate, so why would we begin to imagine that we should adhere to some arbitrary, or even capricious standard to interpret what it means to, or for us, today?
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expressed it best in this brief story, why “originalism” and “textualism” are misguided rules.
CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she is preparing for when Amy Coney Barrett takes her seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. She was asked to share her thoughts Tuesday on the judge and minced no words.
Mayor Lightfoot was first asked if she views the U.S. Constitution as Judge Barrett does, as an “originalist.”
Originalists firmly believe all statements in the U.S. Constitution must be strictly interpreted based on the original understanding at the time the Constitution was adopted. They do not believe in the concept of a “Living Constitution” that can be interpreted in the context of current times.
“You ask a gay, black woman if she is an originalist? No, ma’am, I am not,” Lightfoot laughed.
“That the Constitution didn’t consider me a person in any way, shape or form because I’m a woman, because I’m black, because I’m gay? I am not an originalist. I believe in the Constitution. I believe that it is a document that the founders intended to evolve and what they did was set the framework for how our country was going to be different from any other.”
“But originalists say that, ‘Let’s go back to 1776 and whatever was there in the original language, that’s it.’ That language excluded, now, over 50 percent of the country. So, no I’m not an originalist.”
Mayor Lightfoot said she’s deeply worried about some of Judge Barrett’s stated views, for instance, being against gay marriage.
“I deeply worry about this woman’s stated views. She’s on the record on a number of different things, not the least of which is thinking that gay marriage is something that shouldn’t be countenanced. And she’s got soulmates in Justice Thomas and others, who think that the decision by the Supreme Court…should somehow be rolled back,” Lightfoot said.
“What should I tell my daughter — that somehow now my wife and I are no longer married? That we’re no longer legitimately recognized in the eyes of the law? That is dangerous, dangerous territory. And what about a woman’s right to choose? We’re gonna keep re-litigating this issue, and we’re gonna make abortion illegal, as Amy Coney Barrett thinks it should be?”
The Mayor also called Republicans “hypocrites” for pushing the Barrett nomination when they put off taking up the Merrick Garland nomination by President Obama.
“The hypocrisy is something that is a bitter pill for me to swallow,” Lightfoot said.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, October 21, 2020
This is what the soft hatred of bigotry cloaked in religious garb looks like.
This revelation should come as no surprise, that a radicalized right-wing religious zealot should serve at a high level on the Board of Directors for three schools in three separate states under a common umbrella would discriminate.
Below her image are three more images of the same type thing.
This person must NOT be confirmed to the nation’s highest court!
And toward that end, perhaps it may alarm you to know that a Ku Klux Klansman has been seated on the nation’s highest court.
You can read Matt Reimann’s excellently succinct August 15, 2017 article via the link above. Of note, Mr. Justice Black was also a “textualist” on matters of interpretation of the Constitution – the same thing late Justice Scalia said he was, and which Judge Barrett says she is.
“CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she is preparing for when Amy Coney Barrett takes her seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. She was asked to share her thoughts Tuesday on the judge and minced no words.
“Mayor Lightfoot was first asked if she views the U.S. Constitution as Judge Barrett does, as an “originalist.”
“Originalists firmly believe all statements in the U.S. Constitution must be strictly interpreted based on the original understanding at the time the Constitution was adopted. They do not believe in the concept of a “Living Constitution” that can be interpreted in the context of current times.
““You ask a gay, black woman if she is an originalist? No, ma’am, I am not,” Lightfoot laughed.
““That the Constitution didn’t consider me a person in any way, shape or form because I’m a woman, because I’m black, because I’m gay? I am not an originalist. I believe in the Constitution. I believe that it is a document that the founders intended to evolve and what they did was set the framework for how our country was going to be different from any other.
““But originalists say that, ‘Let’s go back to 1776 and whatever was there in the original language, that’s it.’ That language excluded, now, over 50 percent of the country. So, no I’m not an originalist.”
“Mayor Lightfoot said she’s deeply worried about some of Judge Barrett’s stated views, for instance, being against gay marriage.
““I deeply worry about this woman’s stated views. She’s on the record on a number of different things, not the least of which is thinking that gay marriage is something that shouldn’t be countenanced. And she’s got soulmates in Justice Thomas and others, who think that the decision by the Supreme Court…should somehow be rolled back,” Lightfoot said.
““What should I tell my daughter — that somehow now my wife and I are no longer married? That we’re no longer legitimately recognized in the eyes of the law? That is dangerous, dangerous territory. And what about a woman’s right to choose? We’re gonna keep re-litigating this issue, and we’re gonna make abortion illegal, as Amy Coney Barrett thinks it should be?”
“The Mayor also called Republicans “hypocrites” for pushing the Barrett nomination when they put off taking up the Merrick Garland nomination by President Obama.
“”The hypocrisy is something that is a bitter pill for me to swallow,” Lightfoot said.”
The September 13, 1937 front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette printed an image of Black’s KKK resignation letter.
“Hugo Black had been associate justice of the Supreme Court for less than a month when the news broke. In September of 1937, an exposé by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found proof of Black’s membership in the Ku Klux Klan. He had joined in September of 1923, and resigned in July, 1925, as one of his first moves before running for one of Alabama’s U.S. Senate seat. Ironically, the smoking gun was Black’s resignation letter, written in legible longhand on Klan stationery, which appeared on the paper’s front page.
“Franklin Roosevelt, who nominated Hugo Black, was implicated in the scandal, which threatened to have far-reaching consequences for the president’s New Deal image. What was once seen as shrewd politics — the New Deal-friendly textualist was confirmed with a 63–16 vote — had become a disgrace. “Millions of Americans,” wrote one Indiana newspaper, “will not forget this sole tangible accomplishment of President Roosevelt’s attempted ‘liberalization’ of the Supreme Court.”
“When asked by the press to remark on the scandal, Roosevelt brushed questions aside, saying, “I only know what I have read in the newspapers. I know that the stories are appearing serially and their publication is not complete. Mr. Justice Black is in Europe where, undoubtedly, he cannot get the full text of these articles. Until such time as he returns, there is no further comment to be made.”“
apnews.com
Barrett Was Trustee At Private School With Anti-Gay Policies
By Michelle R. Smith and Michael Biesecker
October 21, 2020 at 10:51:08 AM CDT
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett served for nearly three years on the board of private Christian schools that effectively barred admission to children of same-sex parents and made it plain that openly gay and lesbian teachers weren’t welcome in the classroom.
The policies that discriminated against LGBTQ people and their children were in place for years at Trinity Schools Inc., both before Barrett joined the board in 2015 and during the time she served.
The three schools, in Indiana, Minnesota and Virginia, are affiliated with People of Praise, an insular community rooted in its own interpretation of the Bible, of which Barrett and her husband have been longtime members. At least three of the couple’s seven children have attended the Trinity School at Greenlawn, in South Bend, Indiana.
The AP spoke with more than two dozen people who attended or worked at Trinity Schools, or former members of People of Praise. They said the community’s teachings have been consistent for decades: Homosexuality is an abomination against God, sex should occur only within marriage, and marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
Interviewees told the AP that Trinity’s leadership communicated anti-LGBTQ policies and positions in meetings, one-on-one conversations, enrollment agreements, employment agreements, handbooks and written policies — including those in place when Barrett was an active member of the board.
“Trinity Schools does not unlawfully discriminate with respect to race, color, gender, national origin, age, disability, or other legally protected classifications under applicable law, with respect to the administration of its programs,” said Jon Balsbaugh, president of Trinity Schools Inc., which runs the three campuses, in an email.
The actions are probably legal, experts said. Scholars said the school’s and organization’s teachings on homosexuality and treatment of LGBTQ people are harsher than those of the mainstream Catholic church. In a documentary released Wednesday, Pope Francis endorsed civil unions for the first time as pope, and said in an interview for the film that, “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God.”
Barrett’s views on whether LGBTQ people should have the same constitutional rights as other Americans became a focus last week in her Senate confirmation hearing. But her longtime membership in People of Praise and her leadership position at Trinity Schools were not discussed, even though most of the people the AP spoke with said her deep and decades-long involvement in the community signals she would be hostile to gay rights if confirmed.
Suzanne B. Goldberg, a professor at Columbia Law School who studies sexuality and gender law, said private schools have wide legal latitude to set admissions criteria. And, she said, Trinity probably isn’t covered by recent Supreme Court rulings outlawing employment discrimination against LGBTQ people because of its affiliation with a religious community. But, she added, cases addressing those questions are likely to come before the high court in the near future, and Barrett’s past oversight of Trinity’s discriminatory policies raises concerns.
“When any member of the judiciary affiliates themselves with an institution that is committed to discrimination on any ground, it is important to look more closely at how that affects the individual’s ability to give all cases a fair hearing,” Goldberg said.
The AP sent detailed questions for Barrett to the White House press office. Rather than providing direct answers, White House spokesman Judd Deere instead accused AP of attacking the nominee.
“Because Democrats and the media are unable to attack Judge Barrett’s sterling qualifications, they have instead turned to pathetic personal attacks on her children’s Christian school, even though the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed that religious schools are protected by the First Amendment,” Deere said in an email.
Nearly all the people interviewed for this story are gay or said they have gay family members. They used words such as “terrified,” “petrified” and “frightening” to describe the prospect of Barrett on the high court. Some of them know Barrett, have mutual friends with her or even have been in her home dozens of times. They describe her as “nice” or “a kind person,” but told the AP they feared others would suffer if Barrett tries to implement People of Praise’s views on homosexuality on the Supreme Court.
About half of the people asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation against themselves or their families from other members of People of Praise, or because they had not come out to everyone in their lives. Among those interviewed were people who attended all three of its schools and who had been active in several of its 22 branches. Their experiences stretched back as far as the 1970s, and as recently as 2020.
NOT WELCOME
Tom Henry was a senior at Trinity School in Eagan, Minnesota, serving as a student ambassador, providing tours to prospective families, when Barrett was an active member of the board.
In early 2017, a lesbian parent asked him whether Trinity was open to gay people and expressed concern about how her child would be treated.
Henry, who is gay, said he didn’t know what to say. He had been instructed not to answer questions about People of Praise or Trinity’s “politics.”
The next day, Henry recalled, he asked the school’s then-headmaster, Jon Balsbaugh, how he should have answered. Henry said Balsbaugh pulled a document out of his desk drawer that condemned gay marriage, and explained it was a new policy from People of Praise that was going into the handbook.
“He looked me right in the eye and said, the next time that happens, you tell them they would not be welcome here,” Henry recounted. “And he said to me that trans families, gay families, gay students, trans students would not feel welcome at Trinity Schools. And then he said, ‘Do we understand each other?’ And I said, yes. And I left. And then I quit the student ambassadors that day.”
Balsbaugh, who has since been promoted to president of Trinity Schools Inc., says his recollection of the conversation “differs considerably,” but declined Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Perhaps by now you’ve heard of the sad and tragic news out of France, that recently, Samuel Paty, a 47-year old male teacher was brutally decapitated by a radicalized 18-year old, Russian-born male Muslim student. Though one committed the heinous act, at least 10 students have been arrested for participation in the plot. The prime suspect is a Chechen refugee.
According to Reuters, the episode began when several Muslim parents were angered earlier this month after Paty taught a mandatory “moral and civil education” class on freedom of expression, and had shown to his pupils 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which were originally published in a Danish newspaper before republication in Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical publication renown for their anti-establishment satire poking fun at the far right, and aspects of Catholicism, Judaism and Islam.
The Guardian reported that a parent of one of the students in Paty’s class had posted a response to an angry video complaining about the class. The respondent wrote: “I am a parent of a student at this college. The teacher just showed caricatures from Charlie Hebdo as part of a history lesson on freedom of expression. He asked the Muslim students to leave the classroom if they wished, out of respect … He was a great teacher. He tried to encourage the critical spirit of his students, always with respect and intelligence. This evening, I am sad, for my daughter, but also for teachers in France. Can we continue to teach without being afraid of being killed?”
The French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo recently republished for a second time the same cartoons (also seen here) the day before the beginning of a French trial of Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, October 19, 2020
With the nomination and practical acceptance of Amy Coney Barrett being ramrodded through roughshod by the Republicans, it’s almost a practical assurance that the Judge from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will fill the seat vacated by the recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
So if she’s approved to be a Justice on the Supreme Court, it will have been done in less time than it took for her original nomination to be confirmed to the Federal judiciary – 5 months 24 days, versus 3 weeks 3 days/24 calendar days (to date), and counting.
Amy Coney Barrett at investiture to the Federal bench, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Proceeding therefrom, it now appears that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will no longer be tilting at windmills, but instead, will be significantly tilting toward the far right side of the political spectrum – the right-wing nut job side.
So, given that Judge Barrett, whom for one year clerked for late Justice Antonin Scalia, well-known for his interpretive style on the court – which he called “originalism,” and “textualism” – we can expect more nonsensical rulings in the 40+ years to come, the time for which she could reasonably be expected to rule.
Just like Neil Gorsuch’s infamous “Frozen Trucker” case.
And just so you’ll know – not that you would know – there’s a rather telling, and disturbing side of Judge A.C. Barrett’s judicial perspective, and interpretive style.
Case in point to illustrate: Kanter v Barr – a case in which she dissented involving a man who pleaded guilty to one count of a Federal Felony – mail fraud involving Medicare.
In the court’s ruling – an “en banc” decision, involving three judges – they wrote that: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, October 18, 2020
Trump’s economy is SO BAD…
How bad is it?
Trump’s economy is so bad, that he has LOST MORE than was gained under his administration.
When he took the Oath of Office in January 2017, POS45 was given a THRIVING economy by his predecessor, the Black Democratic President (that’s GOT to gall POS45, don’t you know!?!) Barack Hussein Obama.
Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) from the St. Louis Federal Reserve, presented graphically data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis about our national economy.
And, just for funsies, and perspective, data from the First Quarter 2005 until Current – 2nd Quarter 2020 is shown.
And as you can see plainly, the last time the economy was performing at this level, was in the 1st Quarter 2015 – over 5 years ago.
5ive years.
That would be the next-to-last year of President Obama’s 2nd term.
Yeah.
Trump has
SQUANDERED AWAY EVERYTHING,
AND THEN SOME!
Kinda’ sounds like a Bible parable, or some such thing.
Isn’t that what he’s done historically with his casinos and their 6 associated Chapter 11 bankruptcies?
But look also at this: The sudden precipitous decline, the rapidly massive downturn in Trump’s economy is the WORST – THE WORST (he likes superlatives) – since records began being kept in 1947. Maybe even worse than the Great Depression.
But look also at this: The sudden precipitous decline, the rapidly massive downturn in Trump’s economy is the WORST – THE WORST (he likes superlatives) – since records have been kept in 1947. Maybe even worse than the Great Depression.
Trump’s economy is now at the point
where Obama’s economy was
in the 1st Quarter 2015.
Here’s another one which points out the utter hypocrisy of the GOP and the religious right wing community in moving her nomination forward shoving her nomination down American’s throat.
Think of it as a form of political rape.
As I’ve written previously – she’s allowing herself to be used.
On Monday the Senate Democrats [avoided and ignored] the subject of religion. During the first day of Appellate Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings, they focused on health care and how Donald Trump’s third nominee might rule after the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments next month on the Affordable Care Act. Avoiding religion was probably wise given the Republicans’ level of fake outrage over fake “religious bigotry.” The rest of us, however, don’t need to play along. Barrett’s Catholicism is fair game.
Yes, I know. Highly influential liberal pundits, and some liberal pundits striving mightily to become influential, argue that religion should be off limits. First, they say, because a person of sincerely held religious beliefs can adjudicate impartially. Second, there’s enough to talk about without bringing up Barrett’s faith. While I presume these liberals mean well (to be clear, in presuming this, I’m being generous), they’re wrong.
They assume, for one thing, that religion and politics can be disentangled. Sometimes they can be. Sometimes they can’t. For another, these liberals behave as if politics is somehow taking religion hostage. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote Monday night: “When politicians use faith as an excuse to pass and uphold laws that seize control of people’s bodies but not guarantee them healthcare, feed the poor, shelter the homeless, or welcome the stranger, you have to wonder if it’s really about faith at all.”
No, you don’t have to wonder. It’s about their faith, full stop. Millions in this country—white evangelical Protestants and conservative white Catholics chief among them—root their genuinely held religious beliefs in opposition to modernity, which is to say, in politics. There is, therefore, no appreciable difference between them. The more our society moves in the direction of greater freedom, equity and justice for all people, the more these revanchists believe their faith is under siege; and the more they feel their faith is under siege, the more prepared they are to go to war over “religious freedom.”
I don’t know if Barrett intends to help reverse Roe any more than you do. I do know—and you know—that that’s why Donald Trump picked her. That’s why she accepted his illegitimate nomination. Overturning Roe, or at least gutting it in order to Read the rest of this entry »
by Stephen Fowler, Georgia Public Broadcasting
Oct. 17, 2020
5 a.m. EDT
Congress works for you. Learn how to be a better boss with the User’s Guide to Democracy, a series of personalized emails about what your representatives actually do.
This article is co-published by ProPublica, Georgia Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio.
Kathy spotted the long line of voters as she pulled into the Christian City Welcome Center about 3:30 p.m., ready to cast her ballot in the June 9 primary election.
Hundreds of people were waiting in the heat and rain outside the lush, tree-lined complex in Union City, an Atlanta suburb with 22,400 residents, nearly 88% of them Black. She briefly considered not casting a ballot at all, but decided to stay.
By the time she got inside more than five hours later, the polls had officially closed and the electronic scanners were shut down. Poll workers told her she’d have to cast a provisional ballot, but they promised that her vote would be counted.
“I’m now angry again, I’m frustrated again, and now I have an added emotion, which is anxiety,” said Kathy, a human services worker, recalling her emotions at the time. She asked that her full name not be used because she fears repercussions from speaking out. “I’m wondering if my ballot is going to count.”
By the time the last voter finally got inside the welcome center to cast a ballot, it was the next day, June 10.
The clogged polling locations in metro Atlanta reflect an underlying pattern: The number of places to vote has shrunk statewide, with little recourse. Although the reduction in polling places has taken place across racial lines, it has primarily caused long lines in non-White neighborhoods where voter registration has surged and more residents cast ballots in person on Election Day. The pruning of polling places started long before the pandemic, which has discouraged people from voting in person.
In Georgia, considered a battleground state for control of the White House and U.S. Senate, the difficulty of voting in Black communities like Union City could possibly tip the results on Nov. 3. With massive turnout expected, lines could be even longer than they were for the primary, despite a rise in mail-in voting and Georgians already turning out by the hundreds of thousands to cast ballots early.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder decision in 2013 eliminated key federal oversight of election decisions in states with histories of discrimination, Georgia’s voter rolls have grown by nearly 2 million people, yet polling locations have been cut statewide by nearly 10%, according to an analysis of state and local records by Georgia Public Broadcasting and ProPublica. Much of the growth has been fueled by younger, non-White voters, especially in nine metro Atlanta counties, where four out of five new voters were non-White, according to the Georgia secretary of state’s office.
The metro Atlanta area has been hit particularly hard. The nine counties — Fulton, Gwinnett, Forsyth, DeKalb, Cobb, Hall, Cherokee, Henry and Clayton — have nearly half of the state’s active voters but only 38% of the polling places, according to the analysis.
As a result, the average number of voters packed into each polling location in those counties grew by nearly 40%, from about 2,600 in 2012 to more than 3,600 per polling place as of Oct. 9, the analysis shows. In addition, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, October 17, 2020
“You’re the President — you’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever!”
–– Savannah Guthrie, NBC News’ TODAY co-anchor and Chief Legal Correspondent to U.S. President Donald Trump, Thursday night, October 15, 2020, at a town hall styled outdoor debate at Perez Art Museum, Miami, Florida
US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during an NBC News town hall event moderated by Savannah Guthrie at the Perez Art Museum in Miami, Florida on October 15, 2020.
In addition to getting losing ratings when compared to Biden’s Philadelphia town hall event, Trumpanzee acted like the ass he’s always been – even while in office. A leopard can’t change its spots, nor a zebra its stripes. And Trump can’t be anything other than an asshole – the Asshole in Chief, specifically.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, October 16, 2020
Trump Lost.
Joe Biden and ABC were the BIG WINNERS in Thursday night’s “split screen America” debate.
Biden’s Q & A Town Hall meeting Thursday, October 15, 2020 with voters was held in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center with George Stephanopoulos moderating. Both men, and all attendees were more than adequately distanced for public health reasons.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Town Hall was conducted outdoors at the Perez Art Museum in Miami, and was moderated by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, a Georgetown Law graduate who was distanced at least 12 feet from the President.
But it turns out NBC was played for a fool by the Manipulator in Chief.
Trump lost.
NBC lost.
After initially rejecting the Commission on Presidential Debates offer to conduct a “virtual” town hall, Trump reached out to NBC to hold the town hall style meeting on the same day and time slot as Joe Biden’s appearance in Philadelphia in a direct head-to-head viewership challenge to feed his fragile ego.
Yashar Ali, a contributor to New York Magazine and HuffPost wrote that several NBC employees were angered, and that “over a dozen NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC sources (talent and staff) and the frustration with and anger toward their employer for scheduling a town hall against Biden is palpable.”
Trump lost.
NBC lost.
NBC News agreed to put Trump before voters in a town hall style event on Thursday, October 15 – the same day as Biden’s scheduled town hall in Philadelphia – stipulating that beforehand, he must have submitted to an independent coronavirus test with the results reviewed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
NBC said that Trump was administered a coronavirus test Tuesday by the National Institutes of Health, the results of which were reviewed by NIH Clinical Director Dr. Clifford Lane and Dr. Anthony Fauci, both who stated after reviewing the President’s medical records, that they had a high degree of confidence that the president was “not shedding infectious virus.”
But Trump’s COVID-19 test wasn’t the only thing reviewed.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, October 16, 2020
Voting in America is crazy.
Reading the bizarre differences of Voter ID laws, rules, and regulations in four neighboring states – Florida and Alabama, Alabama and Tennessee, and Tennessee and Kentucky – one can’t help but laugh at the absurdity, and inconsistency of it all.
Moreover, it gives pause for thought, and raises the question: What the hell is going on, and why?
Such absurdity is not limited to those Southern former “slave states.” Throughout America, laws relating or pertaining to voting are a poorly designed, pathetically executed mishmash, a harum-scarum hodgepodge, which is rickety and contradictory, and a miserably vacillating excuse for a democratic process as one could possibly imagine.
There is LITERALLY NO CONSISTENCY in them whatsoever!
LITERALLY!
Here are a few simple, yet egregious examples to illustrate the case in point.
In Vermont, Maine, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico (yes, Puerto Ricans are American citizens) convicted felons can vote… while incarcerated.
But not in any other state in the union.
In Florida, voters in the Sunshine State agreed in 2018 with a 65% majority to allow former felons who had completed their sentences to vote. It restored the rights of nearly 1.5 million citizens in that state. However, the GOP-dominated legislature overrode the citizens expressed will and changed the law to require the former felons to have paid all fines and fees associated with their case, before they could register to vote, thereby effectively disenfranchising at least 6.98% of 21,477,737 Floridians of their Constitutionally-guaranteed right.
In 16 states, felons lose their voting rights only while incarcerated, and receive automatic restoration upon release.
In 21 states, felons lose their voting rights during incarceration, and for a period of time after, typically while on parole and/or probation. Voting rights are automatically restored after this time period. Former felons may also have to pay any outstanding fines, fees or restitution before their rights are restored as well.
In 11 states felons lose their voting rights indefinitely for some crimes, or require a governor’s pardon in order for voting rights to be restored, face an additional waiting period after completion of sentence (including parole and probation) or require additional action before voting rights can be restored.
And while some states revoke the right to vote following a felony conviction, thereby requiring re-registration, North Dakota automatically registers all eligible voters.
And that’s just a good start to illustrate the case in point.
There is NO consistency in the 50 states’ laws when it comes to matters pertaining to voting.
For the largest part, states can, and do, whatever they want when it comes to matters pertaining to voting.
Why?
Because they can.
There are very few, if any, Federal voting-related laws, rules, or regulations in the United States.
Article I., Section 4 of the United States Constitution reads in pertinent part that, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, October 15, 2020
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the President’s nominee to be a Supreme Court Justice, has dodged the question of recusal on any potential case which might come before her which would be brought by the President on any matter pertaining to the 2020 General Election. She dodged because she replied that she would follow the law of recusal.
She said in part that, “I commit to you to fully and faithfully applying the law of recusal. … I will apply the factors that other justices have before me in determining whether the circumstances require my recusal or not. But I can’t offer a legal conclusion right now about the outcome of the decision I would reach.”
When asked about the law of recusal, she said in part that, “I can’t offer an opinion on recusal without short-circuiting the entire process.”
When specifically asked about election cases, she stated to the effect that it wasn’t a question she could answer “in the abstract.”
Obviously, she is aware of the law’s requirements, but what is concerning is if she will obey (follow) the law.
There could be an argument made that she has no interest in the case, per se, at least insofar as she was not a member of the President’s administration, nor had she done any work for him.
There are several disconcerting aspects of this matter, none of which concern her judicial temperament, nor her judicial philosophy, nor her rulings. First is that she has allowed herself to be used by the GOP and the President to force her, as their nominee, through the confirmation process in the midst of an ongoing election. Already, millions of people have voted.
Secondarily is Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s actions, in conjunction with the President’s efforts, to rush the nominee through the process. Rushed things are rarely done with high quality, or long-term thoughtfulness. Further, that “Moscow” Mitch McConnell has deliberately stalled, or “killed” well over 400 bills from the House of Representatives is prima facie evidence of his contempt for the Constitution, and legislative process. And that he has similarly refused to act upon any bill which would first, and foremost, deal with the matter of the coronavirus, aka COVID-19, and the needs of the people for their health, their needs for economic sustenance, and more, is again, hard-core evidence not merely of a lack of caring, but is an abandonment of his responsibilities to the American people, not merely to the citizens of Kentucky whose interests he is supposed to represent.
To the extent that Amy Coney Barrett participates in that wretched process, she is complicit in it all. She has, in effect, become a political tool, and is doing so knowingly.
Were she to have requested a delay of her hearings until after the election – a delay of a few mere weeks – she would likely have not garnered such opposition. For she is, in my considered estimation, more than a well-qualified jurist, and would be a good addition to the United States Supreme Court. Even 88 University of Notre Dame faculty members wrote an open letter to her, stating that it was “vital” that she “issue a public statement calling for a halt to your nomination process until after the November presidential election.”
In the letter, those faculty members also wrote in part that, “The rushed nature of your nomination process, which you certainly recognize as an exercise in raw power politics, may effectively deprive the American people of a voice in selecting the next Supreme Court justice,” and stated that “you can refuse to be party to such maneuvers. We ask that you honor the democratic process and insist the hearings be put on hold until after the voters have made their choice.”
And goodness knows, we need more legal diversity on the nation’s highest court, and I don’t mean to refer to sex, ethnicity, or any physical factor – I mean to refer to the schools of law which the nominees have attended. And as she herself has noted,
“I would be the first mother of school-age children to serve on the Court. I would be the first Justice to join the Court from the Seventh Circuit in 45 years. And I would be the only sitting Justice who didn’t attend law school at Harvard or Yale. I am confident that Notre Dame will hold its own, and maybe I could even teach them a thing or two about football.”
Would she be my pick?
Perhaps not, but again, it is the rushed nature of this event which is most exceedingly distasteful. Hypocrisy has neither a pleasing aroma, nor taste.
Finally, there are other matters concerning the Supreme Court which desperately need to be addressed, which undoubtedly will not have an opportunity to be discussed simply because of the Senate Majority Leader’s deliberately destructive tactics to “kill” legislation.
Hearings to examine the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, of Indiana, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. 116th Congress (2019-2020)
And so, for your benefit, here is the law of recusal to which she referred. You can, and should, read it for yourself. It’s not difficult to understand, and is straightforward, without mumbo jumbo jargon.
§455. Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate judge
(a) Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
(b) He shall also disqualify himself in the following circumstances:
(1) Where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding;
(2) Where in private practice he served as lawyer in the matter in controversy, or a lawyer with whom he previously practiced law served during such association as a lawyer concerning the matter, or the judge or such lawyer has been a material witness concerning it;
(3) Where he has served in governmental employment and in such capacity participated as Read the rest of this entry »
And then, there’s Professor Dr. Michael McDonald, PhD, of the University of Florida, who administers the United States Elections Project website which compiles early voting return statistics, and a few days ago found that over 8 million ballots had been cast, eclipsing by a factor of 10 the number of ballots cast in the last presidential election at this point in the cycle. When interviewed by Reuters on October 9, said, “We’ve never seen this many people voting so far ahead of an election. We’ve never seen this many people voting so far ahead of an election. People cast their ballots when they make up their minds, and we know that many people made up their minds long ago and already have a judgment about Trump.”
Today, the Election Project is reporting that voters have cast a total of 18,105,692 ballots in the reporting states – over double the number a few days ago – which at this point, is 13.1% of the total votes counted in the 2016 general election.
Based upon the Early Voting returns from 34 states and the District of Columbia, Professor Dr. McDonald is Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, October 15, 2020
In this critique by an Australian directed at Australians, a former Australian government official warns about the toxic mess which the American President Donald J. Trump has created in the United States surrounding the voting process in the 50 states.
In an oblique way, it could be considered an enumeration of reasons why American voters should NOT vote for, nor support the man, nor his re-election to office. Again, it is merely a statement of fact about voting-related incidents in, and sad facts about the U.S.A. as it relates to voting, and serves as a warning to Australians to NOT make the same mistakes, and to stay AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE from such.
Face it, folks… Trump has NOT made America “great again.” But of course, the slogan “make America great again” was bad, and fatally flawed to begin with – just like his presidency – because a thing cannot be made again unless it is unmade to begin with. It’s kinda’ like your bed. It’s either made, or not, and to make it again (if it is made already) requires unmaking it.
The US electoral system is not a pretty sight. Australia should take heed.
As the US presidential election on 3 November draws near, many around the world watch on with concern and denounce the erosion of democracy and democratic values from afar.
For Australia, it should act as a poignant reminder to consider the health of our own system, where mistrust in politicians and the political system features glaringly in public sentiment.
The global flag-bearer of democracy, the US, has been engulfed in a wave of disputes regarding gerrymandering, voter purges from electoral rolls, and ugly voter suppression campaigns. Voter turnout has seldom nudged the 60% mark, which ranks among the lowest of major democratic countries in the world. [emphasis added -ed.]
That was the promise which was authorized and made to freed slaves by General Tecumseh Sherman in Special Field Order No. 15 on January 16, 1865, during the last days of the Civil War.
It was promptly broken by President Johnson, who was a slave owner, and had become President upon Lincoln’s assassination.
America has been breaking promises at least since 1776.
I wish that America’s politicians
(especially the GOP)
cared more for The People
than for corporations.
Anyone that loves America, loves her people, loves the idea of liberty, of equality, and guaranteed rights under law, should also love honesty, justice, and responsibility. And one simply CANNOT examine any segment of American history without acknowledging the horrific and grotesque inequity present FROM THE BEGINNING of this nation. It’s written in the Constitution, for heaven’s sake!
Women did not have the right to vote (suffrage).
Blacks were enslaved. Then, Blacks were continually discriminated against in seemingly countless ways – ranging from the denial of voting rights, of commerce, of justice, and more. And, as if to add insult to injury, the 13th Amendment has an exclusion clause FOR the purpose of perpetuating slavery. The amendment reads: Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
“…except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted…”
Yes, slavery IS 100% Legal in the United States. The Constitution says so.
And to ANYONE who claims or asserts that there is not now institutionalized racism in this country need only look to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) to see that racism is institutionalized, and alive and well in the United States.
In the 1999 Class Action case Pigford v. Glickman(Timothy Pigford, et al., v. Dan Glickman, Secretary, United States Department of Agriculture), “the suit claimed that the agency had discriminated against black farmers on the basis of race and failed to investigate or properly respond to complaints from 1983 to 1997.” Members of the class included those who received allocation of farm loans and assistance between 1981 and 1996. (See: “Black Farmers Win $1.25 Billion In Discrimination Suit,” By Jasmin Melvin, February 18, 2010, online at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-farmers-pigford-idUSTRE61H5XD20100218)
• The 2007 Census of Agriculture reported that 2.20 million farms operated in the United States. Of this total, 32,938, or approximately 1.5% of all farms, were operated by African Americans.
• Over 74% (24,466) of African American farmers in the United States reside in Texas, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia and Louisiana.
• Average annual market value for farms operated by African American farmers in 2007 was $30,829. The national average for white U.S. farmers was $140,521.
• Overall, the number of farms operated in the United States increased by 3.2% between 2002 and 2007. Farms operated by African Americans increased from 29,090 to 32,938, an 11.7% increase over the five-year period.
• In 2007, 348 (757 in 2002) African American farmers received Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) loans amounting to a total of $9.9 million. This averaged $28,408 per participating African American farmer, about 32% of the national average ($87,917). Average CCC loan value to white farmers was $88,379.
• Other federal farm payments to African American operated farms averaged $4,260, half the national average government farm payment of $9,518. About 31% of all African American farmers received some government payment compared to 50% of white farmers.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Most polls which ask the question “Do you think America is headed in the right direction?” find that an exceeding majority of respondents answer “NO” to that very simple, straight-forward question.
Since January 2009 to today (October 13, 2020), those who believe the country is on the wrong track has ranged from a high of 76.5% to a low of 45.8%, with the majority occurring in the 60% range for most of that time, who think the country is headed in the wrong direction. That’s according to the averaged aggregate polling data collected by RealClearPolitics from a variety of polling organizations.
About the President, some have intoned sarcastically, “Poor ol’ Trump is the only President that has ever made mistakes.”
No, of course not, and it’s easy to understand the tenor and gist of such sarcasm.
Flooding by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans
I can say, have said, and will say this, however, and it is that, to date, in our nation’s history, he is the ONLY President whom has NEVER held any office of Public Trust of any kind, whatsoever – neither elected nor appointed – nor has he EVER volunteered for or with any kind of Public Service in ANY capacity with any public policy or public service-based organization. And for that reason, he is as unfit for duty as his bone spurs made him during Vietnam.
While many criticize and make political hay out of regarding a candidate’s “inexperience,” and tout that as being a strong point of benefit, there is this to consider – which I’ll explain using analogy.
Most people are employees. They have a job to do, and do it well. But they’ve never owned, nor run a company of any kind.
So it would be utterly preposterous, absurd, and even stupid, to imagine that just anyone would be able to step into Jeff Bezos’s shoes (Amazon’s Founder, President, CEO) and perform his job at least as good as he does.
We would be utter failures… just like the President is.
Another part of that problem is that the President’s “mistakes,” or “failures,” as they’re properly called, affects 330,441,455 people, and the world’s LARGEST economy.
And on that note, I’ll make this observation:
As the world’s 3rd most populous nation, to China and India, respectively, each with over 1 BILLION MORE people than we have, it is the height of absurdity and preposterousness to imagine for even a moment that somehow, with that many people and STILL GROWING, that we should somehow have a “smaller” government is not merely stupid, it is moronic.
Analogously again, it’s like imagining that you should wear smaller clothes the bigger you get.It’s nonsensical on the order of Alice in Wonderland.
VERY few people want to talk about it, and even FEWER want to hear it, but… because our elected officials Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, October 12, 2020
––Day 1: Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing: Blumenthal Urges Barrett To Recuse From Cases Involving Election––
Perhaps you’ve read, and therefore know, my earlier opinion on that matter.
I have also said that she should recuse herself, because he and his campaign are PLANNING on a Supreme Court fight in the course of this election – much WORSE than Bush v Gore, which will make that case look like a cakewalk. And, the President is COUNTING ON HER SUPPORT.
He has said as much:
“We need 9 justices. You need that. With the unsolicited millions of ballots that they’re sending, it’s a scam; it’s a hoax. Everybody knows that. And the Democrats know it better than anybody else. So you’re going to need 9 justices up there. I think it’s going to be very important. Because what they’re doing is a hoax, with the ballots. I think this will end up in the Supreme Court, and I think it’s very important that we have 9 justices. I think it’s better if you go before the election because I think this scam that the Democrats are pulling, it’s a scam, this scam will be before the United States Supreme Court. And I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation. If you get that. I don’t know that you’d get that. I think it should be 8-to-nothing or 9-to-nothing, but just in case it would be more political than it should be.”
(Hearing him talk is like listening to the idiotic babbling of a toddler – incessantly repeating himself.)
He is suborning her prejudicial support of his court case. That is a corrupt practice, not only for an independent judiciary, but for the Office of the President.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, October 11, 2020
This death count brought to you by: The once Grand Old Party, who reminds you, Vote for Biden!
The GOP reminds you: VOTE FOR BIDEN!
There are at least 214, 367 reasons to NOT vote for Trump. Those are dead reasons. There are 7,717,392 living reasons to NOT vote for the Liar in Chief.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, October 8, 2020
You KNOW things are serious when a majority of physicians, scientists, researchers and others come out against a political leader, especially and particularly the President… when they’ve NEVER DONE IT BEFORE.
America has NOT been made “great again” by our feckless misleader, the Liar in Chief, Donald John Trump.
It’s time to TAKE OUT THE TRASH IN NOVEMBER!
In an uncharacteristic move, The New England Journal of Medicine recently took a step which they have not since their 1812 founding.
A scathing editorial signed by all 34 editors of the publication – physicians, scientists, health researchers, and medical experts – acknowledged that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the President and his administration have “taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy.”
The group minced no words in their scorching criticism of the President and his administration for their abysmal, still-ongoing failures which have claimed at least 212,466 lives, and counting, by writing that “Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed ‘opinion leaders’ and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies.”
Solution being carefully poured into a petri dish that sits under a micro scope. A medical scientist wearing glasses can be seen concentrating as he pours from the glass flask. Selective focus.
Noting that physicians and other healthcare professionals face the possibility of lawsuits, and loss of license for such malpractice, they acknowledged that the nation’s solitary recourse for political malfeasance is to vote him out of office, and wrote that, “Anyone else who recklessly squandered lives and money in this way would be suffering legal consequences. Our leaders have largely claimed immunity for their actions. But this election gives us the power to render judgment.”
They cited America’s Trump-led failures and wrote that in comparison to other nations, “We have failed at almost every step. We had ample warning, but when the disease first arrived, we were incapable of testing effectively and Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, October 8, 2020
True to form, radicalized, far right-wing political extremists are portraying Judge A.C. Barrett as a victim. The “poor, pitiful me” routine has taken hold in the GOP, Tea Party and other such ilk. Self loathing has never been more popular, it seems. But it does seem rather peculiar that it should find residence in the right, when for years we’ve been told that it is the political left who are such whiners and crybabies.
Aaaah… the political hypocrisy! You can smell the stench of its cooking all the way from the banks of the Potomac in Washington, D.C.
And the blindly vicious ambition! Its unmitigated violence permeates the miasmatic ether surrounding the city, all the way to the Chesapeake Bay, and beyond.
While “organic,” such contaminants are far from resembling a healthy backyard compost pile where grass clippings, leaves, eggshells, coffee grounds, vegetable peelings, and other such items begin their transformation process to become rich humus, fertile soil for vegetable and plant growth. Their forms, while neither ephemeral, nor impermanent, per se, are causative of other illnesses and diseases transmitted even to the 3rd and 4th generations, and beyond – all preventable – and must be guarded against by every generation.
The only difference being, is that disorders caused by those infections are preventable by conscience, not by manufacture. And the inoculation against such infection and affliction is love.
“Contrary to the impression many have of Barrett, what is most striking about her record is not the looming specter of theocracy, but her enduring opposition to what many Christians believe justice and mercy demand, presented under the aspect of originalism — an ersatz catechism, written in the pages of her judicial opinions, that fuses the political aims of the religious right with the constitutional theories of the late Antonin Scalia.”
There is NO “war” against religious faith in this nation, nor has there ever been. Neither has there ever been any alleged “war against Christmas” by our government, nor by its elected officials and administrators… like Federal judges, and other lifetime appointees. Although, it is curious how an officially non-sectarian, non-religious government sponsors a Federal holiday acknowledging a deity, thereby giving deference, homage and support to the same.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Rather, our Founders, not all of whom were religious-minded, were cognizant of others’ desires to express themselves through the practice of a privately-held conviction of faith – if they so chose – collectively and individually, according to the dictates of their conscience, and allowed to the greatest extent possible the practice of the same, without impingement upon the practices of government, and without obtruding upon others, who might, or not, agree with them. The Founders thought that aspect of individual liberty was so inherent, so inviolable, so sacrosanct to the public good, that they ensconced it, along with a few others, and made it and them First, and foremost among all others which followed.
Our fundamental foundational governing document, the Constitution, ensures and guarantees rights to Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Alternate headline: Trump Fucks Over America
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Tweeted his highness, the Twitterer in Chief, and Chief Twidiot on Twitter the day after returning from a weekend hospital stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he was treated for COVID-19.
His hypocrisy marks a 180° reversal from the weekend when Trump pushed for negotiators to reach an agreement, telling them to “GET IT DONE.”
The SOB in Chief just cut his own throat -and- that of every other GOPer in every down-ballot race in America.
He CONTINUES to shoot himself in the feet, and America in the head and back – execution style.
Expect a🌊BLUE🌊TSUNAMI🌊in November!!
By his intransigence, he has now set America on a guaranteed one-way course to GREAT DEPRESSION II.
And that EVEN AFTER Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned of PERMANENT economic damage if additional support was not forthcoming.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, October 6, 2020
In a debate that was genuinely enjoyable to watch, incumbent Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, faced Democratic contender Jaime Harrison in an hour-long face-off in Chappelle Auditorium on the campus of Allen University in Columbia, which partnered with WIS-TV channel 10, also in Columbia, and The State newspaper, to host the event.
In stark contrast to the first Presidential Debate with incumbent Republican President Donald Trump, and the Democratic contender, former Delaware Senator, then Vice President Joe Biden, in which the nation’s Chief Executive behaved like a belligerently bellicose bombastic baseborn buffoon – an ignominious first in the history of Presidential debates – this debate was a civil, even genteel by comparison, walk in the park.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, September 30, 2020
The Current White House Occupant managed to shoot himself and the GOP in the foot again last night (Tuesday, 29 September 2020) with his unmitigated bullying and verbal abuse at the first Trump-Biden Presidential Debate. No doubt, GOP candidates in so-called “down ballot” races will appreciate his effort for making the party look so appealng. </sarcasm>
True to form, and likely knowing that he couldn’t succeed against Biden – an expert debater with 36 years of Senate experience – Trump took a “burn it down/scorched earth” approach and succeeded in destroying the debate, format and forum, by repeatedly interrupting his opponent, the Democratic candidate Joe Biden, and the Moderator, in order to prevent his opponent from cogently responding.
Trump even verbally attacked Moderator Chris Wallace, Fox News Anchor, several times. In the history of American Presidential debates, that has never happened. At one point, Wallace found it necessary to sternly ask Trump to allow his opponent, the Democratic Party’s Presidential Nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, to answer the question, and Trump rudely interrupted him. The exchange was:
WALLACE: “Mr. President, I’m the moderator of this debate and I’d like you to let me ask my questions.”
TRUMP: “I guess I’m debating you, not him. I’m not surprised.”
To characterize the GOP candidate as undisciplined, unbridled, unhinged, out-of-control, and even rude throughout the 90 minute episode, would be diplomatically generous on all counts. Interestingly enough, his performance was oddly reminiscent of Russian tactics during World War II in which the Russians and their army retreated as the German Nazis advanced toward Moscow – colloquially termed as a “scorched earth” policy – in August/September/October 1941. Knowing that the Nazis were approaching, the peasants and others decided to evacuate their towns and cities, burning everything that could possibly be useful to the enemy as they departed. Moreover, it was Hitler’s ill-fated decision to invade Russia, in conjunction with the Russian tactic, that marked a turning point in World War II for the Nazis, which depleted their strength, and resolve. And ironically, Trump’s scorched earth approach to the debate may similarly prove to be the turning point of his candidacy, and presidency, marking the beginning of his end.
Republican strategist Alex Conant confirmed Trump’s failed “burn it down” approach by acknowledging that Trump undoubtedly knows that he’s behind in numerous national polls, and among voting groups whose support it critical to his success, especially in Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, September 25, 2020
Recalling that even a broken clock is correct twice daily:
“Standing in this same place a third of a century ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed a nation ravaged by depression and gripped in fear. He could say in surveying the nation!s troubles: “They concern, thank God, only material things.”
“Our crisis today is in reverse.
“We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth.
“We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them.
“To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit.
“And to find that answer, we need only look within ourselves.
“When we listen to “the better angels of our nature,” we find that they
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, September 25, 2020
The Supreme Court, and the legal profession in general, are steeped in tradition – perhaps even more so than the United States Senate.
If you’ve ever heard any of the oral arguments before the nation’s highest court, you’ve likely heard the opening remark, “Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court.”
However, if you’ve never heard an oral argument, you’re fortunate to be living in this age, because oral arguments in the nation’s highest court are recorded and archived for posterity sake. Audio recordings of the arguments may be found Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, September 24, 2020
What the police did in Louisville, KY is CRIMINAL, and INEXCUSABLE.
PERIOD.
That her murderers/killers were NOT indicted is a indictment itself upon the INJUSTICE system in that town.
This is where vigilante justice comes in handy begins to enter the picture.
Right-Wing Extremists and GOPers are doing it (look at Wisconsin), and now, turn about’s fair play.
They’re permanently marked men – with the “mark of Cain.”
But unlike Cain, look for them to be Read the rest of this entry »
But the point being, it is the schizoid feature of delusion upon which I wish to focus, because it is perhaps the most renown, and most common.
