1. #33181
    Ultimate Member Malvolio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Xheight View Post
    You mean the difference between state sanctioned agitprop and graffiti is the okay by those in power? got it.
    Yes. But it is incredibly easy to get that okay. All you have to do is file the proper paperwork and as long as you don't have a history of advocating or committing violence, you'll get that permit. But I have a feeling that some of these anti-abortion groups don't even bother trying to get a permit so they can cry oppression when they're inevitably arrested.
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  2. #33182
    Astonishing Member JackDaw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PwrdOn View Post

    That being said though, abolishing the Senate is another one of those ideas like abolishing the electoral college or packing the courts that is sort of putting the cart before the horse. If the left in this country somehow actually had the power to enact sweeping reforms to all of these rotten political institutions, then why should we stop there and not try to directly enact all of the actual policies we're advocating for? Abolishing the Senate would be much harder than passing Medicare for all or immigration reform, and accomplish much less, so why even bother entertaining the idea?
    When in pessimistic mode (not unknown for me nowadays) I sometimes think the last really big life changing policy by left in UK was creation of National Health Service, back in the 1940s.

    That may be slightly unfair. But I cannot think, for example, of any one big sweeping popular change brought in by the Tony Blair governments, when funds were plentiful. (Indeed I think it is fair to say their deliberate intention was to bring about many small incremental improvements rather than sweeping change.)

    It is fair comment that they could not do anything after the Blair years because Labour have not formed a government. But deep down I think they have consistently failed to come up with reasonably detailed big popular policies. For example, Jeremy Corbyn regularly told us “things must be fairer”, but rarely spelt out how that could be done.

    It is frustrating because it had been obvious (I think) for sometime the overall tax system is massively over-complicated and unfair, but no one is willing to do the work to reform it. It is as if Labour is unwilling to produce detailed policy while in opposition in case the Conservatives would steal it, so effectively Labour is just saying “trust us to make things better”.

    Patently that is not working, there is not enough blind trust.

    Were the last big triumphs of the left in US the 1960S Civil Rights changes?
    Last edited by JackDaw; 09-14-2021 at 11:03 PM.

  3. #33183

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gray Lensman View Post
    The rss feed headline I remember was "Democrat was in for close race until Republican started talking."
    "DEMS CLEARLY IN DISARRAY".

    LOL. We're less than two months away from state level elections in Virginia and New Jersey that are looking good for Democrats, too.
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  4. #33184
    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by worstblogever View Post
    "DEMS CLEARLY IN DISARRAY".

    LOL. We're less than two months away from state level elections in Virginia and New Jersey that are looking good for Democrats, too.
    Saw an attack ad against NJ governor Phil Murphy on the local news here in Philly this morning, but, I don't think the challenger is going to get much traction. I'm sure Tami knows more about what's going on in Jersey than I do.
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    Ultimate Member Gray Lensman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by worstblogever View Post
    "DEMS CLEARLY IN DISARRAY".

    LOL. We're less than two months away from state level elections in Virginia and New Jersey that are looking good for Democrats, too.
    Knowing the site I got it from, it was more likely intended as mockery of Larry Elder than anything else.

    The only places I remember reading anything thinking Newsome could lose attributed the possibility to the weirdness of California's recall law. If 50% plus 1 voted for recall, then the biggest vote getter after that wins, even if his or her votes were less than half of the "don't recall" line.
    Last edited by Gray Lensman; 09-15-2021 at 03:23 AM.
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  6. #33186

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    Quote Originally Posted by WestPhillyPunisher View Post
    Saw an attack ad against NJ governor Phil Murphy on the local news here in Philly this morning, but, I don't think the challenger is going to get much traction. I'm sure Tami knows more about what's going on in Jersey than I do.
    I would defer to Tami on Jersey, obviously, but every poll I've seen on both Governor's races in NJ and VA shows the Democrats winning comfortably.

    Virginia's state legislature is the only question mark. That's more openly divided, but Democrats have made inroads over the past five years.
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  7. #33187
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by worstblogever View Post
    I would defer to Tami on Jersey, obviously, but every poll I've seen on both Governor's races in NJ and VA shows the Democrats winning comfortably.

    Virginia's state legislature is the only question mark. That's more openly divided, but Democrats have made inroads over the past five years.
    Murphy is very popular in NJ, except among some Republicans of course. However he is running his race as if he isn't, as in that he 's not taking anything for granted. One term Governors are a thing on NJ, so he's running against precedent. I think he has a very good chance of winning.

    It's not going to be easy.

    The NJ FOP won't endorse him this time, like it did last time he ran, but then again they aren't endorsing anyone. The GOP is using that to attack Murphy, which is not surprising but inaccurate.
    Last edited by Tami; 09-15-2021 at 04:34 AM.
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  8. #33188

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    In 2014, and in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Joe Miller, a former U.S. Senate candidate from Alaska who believes that the minimum wage and unemployment benefits are unconstitutional, wanted the 17th Amendment of the Constitution repealed, opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, paid campaign consultants who were involved in gay conversion therapy clinics, allied himself with militia groups who marched to support his campaign with assault rifles, and had his own security team try and arrest journalists for asking questions he didn’t like. He also was later revealed to have been paranoid enough to wear a bulletproof vest on the campaign trail, and spent the next four years complaining about Democrats in ways to further establish that, including by saying President Obama was in league with the Muslim Brotherhood. Miller has moved on to become a conservative radio talk show host in Alaska who gives a platform to some of the nuttiest kooks in hard-right politics to come on his show. Whether it's anti-immigrant lies from Joe Arpaio and Kris Kobach, anti-Muslim conspiracy theories from Walid Shoebat, or anti-gay propaganda from any number of representatives of the Family Research Council, Miller is there to not only fail to challenge any insane claim made on his show, but to add more fuel to the fires of hatred. Joe Miller did not run for office in 2016, and may finally have given up his dreams for elected office.

    On this date in 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" featured a profiled Carlos Beruff, a candidate for U.S. Senate from Florida summed up as "The Little Trump of Florida". His candidacy was a comedy of errors, frankly. While Beruff is believed to be a U.S. citizen born to immigrant parents in Florida, a voter registration form from his home in Manatee County, Florida surfaced where he entered that he was born in Cuba.So only six weeks or so into his campaign, Beruff's got to discuss how that was all just an honest mistake, and he didn't willfully misreport information on a voter registration form because hey... that's a third-degree felony and punishable by up to a $5,000 fine and five years in prison. The Trump comparisons really came because Beruff was notoriously brash, and furiously anti-immigrant (even though his parents were immigrants) and called for a ban for ANY entry by ANYONE from the Middle East into the United States, at all. The point w here Carlos Beruff crossed a line even Trump hadn't, though, is when he called President Obama an "animal", repeatedly in a speech at a county GOP meeting in April of 2016, and claimed that Obama had "destroyed our country and our military". And wouldn't you know it? Beruff refused to apologize for those remarks, at all. In fact, when Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy called upon Beruff to apologize for that, and his other bigotry, Beruff practically tripled down, when he didn't just refuse to say he was sorry, but demand Murphy apologize for "aiding Barack Obama in making America weaker". Beruff was a terrible candidate to an extent that the Florida GOP begged Marco Rubio to renege on his promise to not run for re-election, and against Rubio, managed to get all of 18% of the vote in the primary.

    On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" featured a profiled Todd Wilcox, a former CIA Operative and Green Beret, multi-millionaire, and candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida in 2016. At first, Todd Wilcox seemed like an intriguing candidate in the race to replace Marco Rubio, while he was running for president in 2016, and he was even endorsed by a key advisor to the Donald Trump presidential campaign, General Michael Flynn (which these days isn't as much of a proud endorsement). But there were some pretty big flaws about Wilcox as a candidate, and not just in some of the misdemeanor criminal activity he committed in his youth. You see, Todd Wilcox was more known in the CIA during the Bush administration, and he was rather set in his ways about policies that were being used at the time. Frankly, Todd Wilcox flat out believed that waterboarding works. This is contradictory to the reports released from within the CIA that "enhanced interrogation" techniques garnered no actionable intelligence that were read by people in the U.S. Senate during the Obama administration, and that those findings were released to the public. Wilcox gave his humble opinion that "Social Security is a Ponzi scheme", and talked about getting rid of it. Which, of all the states to play that card… FLORIDA? Spoiler alert… Wilcox did not win office.

    On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Adam Putnam, the former Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services from 2011-2018, and a former a two-term member of the Florida House of Representatives before he was a five-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida’s 12th Congressional District from 2001 through 2010 after being first sworn in back at the age of 26. Putnam sought to be the Governor of Florida in 2018, to follow Voldemort’s stunt double himself, Gov. Rick Scott in that role. After all, he learned a lot from Scott, like how to violate the state’s transparency laws and having to settle out of court for doing so. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and first discuss Putnam’s career as a legislator… as a member of the Florida state legislature in 1999, Adam Putnam just happened to sponsor legislation that made himself and his family’s citrus farm somewhere in the range of $25 million over several years. Once he got to Congress… during his decade long tenure, Putnam managed to miss more than double the average amount of votes. And when you look back upon some of the worst bits of policy from the Bush years, and first two years of the Obama administration, he’s right there leaving his mark on some of the most detrimental ideas conservatives could come up with, including his support of the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill, a votes for a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and votes against ENDA, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the DREAM Act, the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and failed to show up to vote for the Zadroga Bill, to provide healthcare for first responders from 9/11. Putnam would take a step back from a career in Washington, D.C. to return to Florida and take a job working as Florida’s Secretary of Agriculture as a means of escaping an ethics scandal where Putnam was earmarking $100,000 in funds towards an abscission chemical that would again benefit his family’s citrus farm and use his new connections to hide the fact that his family’s business was violating labor laws (for about seven-and-a-half years, anyway). Well, that bit of scandal was something biting Adam Putnam on the arse after he announced his gubernatorial campaign, but then, a far more egregious one broke… One of the focal points of Putnam’s office as Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services is… consumer services includes gun sales. And a responsibility of Putnam’s offices was to perform the mandatory background checks for gun permits. And wouldn’t you know it… for a 13 month period, nary a single background checks on firearm permits was performed, and Putnam and company just handed them out willy-nilly because FLORIDA. Okay, the excuse wasn’t actually “FLORIDA”. The excuse was that the one employee who worked for Putnam in charge of processing the background checks forgot his password to log onto the FBI’s crime database. We would laugh, but the idea that hundreds of guns went into the hands of people who may or may not be criminal psychopaths is just terrifying enough to make it not funny. Also, that story about the guy forgetting his password MIGHT be bulls***, because the actual whistleblower who reported Putnam wasn’t doing his due diligence and performing background checks in the interests of public safety was told back in 2013 that “she worked for the NRA” and was tasked with pushing through 75 gun permits DAILY. She sued, and the state of Florida settled for $10,000, plus another $20,000 for her legal fees. Okay, so trying to blame deliberate negligence on one employee forgetting his password and never bothering to call the FBI and get it reset… that wasn’t plausible. So how did Adam Putnam correct the record? He started admitting he was an “NRA Sellout”, and started campaigning as if that was a GOOD thing. We’re serious. The good news we have at the end of this story is, Adam Putnam lost the primary to Ron DeSantis, because of course the news can get worse.
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  9. #33189

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    On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Melissa Howard, a 2018 candidate for the Florida House of Representatives for a seat in District 73 of that body, who actually was getting a little support and promotion from Republican financer Carlos Beruff. Her campaign didn’t even make it to the primary though, and we never got to learn much about her position on this issues… because she had one of the most embarrassing lies in politics of all of 2018, and that’s saying something in the Trump era. You see, Melissa Howard and her husband lead a comfortable life running the International Medical Expo and Market Place, and she originally dreamed of being on a spinoff of Real Housewives, or some sort of reality show. But when that didn’t happen, she figured a political career was her next ticket to fame. Noble reason for entering public service, right? Anyway, she was already establishing a confrontational relationship with the local media, when the man she was challenging in the GOP Primary for a seat in the state legislature, Tommy Gregory, accused Howard about lying about having a college degree from he University of Miami of Ohio. Reporters, already having seen Howard pull a “fake news” act when they discussed even the most trivial of things about her, couldn’t find any record of her having a degree either. Which prompted Melissa Howard to fly to Ohio to go digging with her mother to pull her diploma out of storage, and post a photo of herself with it online and tell Tommy Gregory to “stop the lies”. There was just one problem… the diploma in the photo was easily broken down as a phony. A day after Melissa Howard promised to stay in the race anyway amidst the controversy, she dropped out. Because she unwittingly committed a misdemeanor by faking her diploma like that, and had to serve probation as a result. We’re pretty sure her career in politics is over before it really started, but on the bright side, now she’ll have more time to focus on becoming a reality TV star.


    On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Jason Saine, who has represented District 97 in the North Carolina House of Representatives since… you guessed it, the 2010 Tea Party Wave. And while we’ve covered many a Republican in the North Carolina State legislature during the thousand plus entries on this blog, we took particular notice of Jason Saine about a year ago after the chicanery pulled by the NCGOP to get their idea of a state budget passed. Republicans around the capitol in Charlotte made a lot of noise about honoring the 18th anniversary of 9/11, scheduling the legislature to take the morning off. Democrats within the state legislature were also on board with respecting those fallen on that dark day by taking the morning off to have a moment of remembrance…

    And then the mother***ing Republicans showed up at the capitol, declared they had enough people present for a quorum, and started passing a veto-proof budget bill against the protests of what few Democrats were at work. It was a brazen and perverse rebuke of American democracy done by abusing the empathy Democrats had towards the concept of showing respect for the deceased. But Jason Saine wasn’t content to just get the veto-proof budget Republicans wanted to the desk of Gov. Roy Cooper, he stood out among the absolute f***ery for dropping this quote:

    One might think that someone so adverse to democratic normalcy would perhaps have some issues with corruption of other kinds… and it seems that might be the case, as a North Carolina watchdog group blew the whistle on the number of times that Saine, a prolific fundraiser, has voted in synch with the interests of his campaign donors right after they give him money. On 23 occasions, he has submitted legislation that appeared to directly written for the purpose of benefiting those who filled his coffers.

    And his voting record? Think about some of the worst legislation to come out of the Tar Heel State since the Tea Party Wave ten years ago. Guess what? Jason Saine has supported almost all of those:

    • June 5th, 2012: Saine votes against HB 947, a bill to compensate victims of forced sterilization by eugenics programs in North Carolina decades earlier.
    • August 2nd, 2012: Saine votes for HB 819, a bill to ban all research on the impacts of climate change upon the North Carolina coastline.
    • April 11th, 2013: Jason Saine votes for HB 392, another of those insane GOP bills that seek to drug test welfare recipients, then lose a state a ton of money on the cost of drug testing only to find no significant drug use until lawsuits against the laws succeed to prove the law is a violation of the 4th Amendment rights of those it seeks to test.
    • June 5th, 2013: Saine votes for the Repeal of the Racial Justice Act.
    • July 11th, 2013: Jason Saine votes for SB 353, an extremely restrictive anti-abortion bill that was amended by the North Carolina GOP from a motorcycle safety bill into an anti-choice measure.
    • July 25th, 2013: Saine votes for HB 589, one of several “stricter Voter ID laws” North Carolina Republicans push during his tenure aimed at suppressing the vote.
    • June 3rd, 2015: Jason Saine votes for HB 465, a TRAP law aimed at creating abortion regulations so restrictive that they would effectively force the closure of all abortion clinics in the state for failing to be able to meet them.
    • June 11th, 2015: Saine votes for SB 2, a bill to allow state officials to refuse to perform “certain marriage duties” if they have a “sincerely held” religious objection.
    • March 23rd, 2016: Saine co-sponsors HB 2, North Carolina’s disastrous anti-LGBTQ law, and boycotts over the law cost the state well over a billion dollars of revenue from business boycotts and the tourism industry.


    Jason Saine is won a sixth term in office in 2020, winning re-election with 75% of the vote. He has taken that new lease on legislative life by making it inherently more dangerous for children in North Carolina, first voting for a bill to allow the concealed carry of firearms inside of schools, as well as voting for a bill to prohibit schools from establishing mask mandates for children during the pandemic.

    Because you can always count on him to vote for the worst legislation the Republican Party thinks of.
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  10. #33190
    Invincible Member Kirby101's Avatar
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    I hear the ads in NY. Seems the only thing Ciattarelli is running on is Murphy said "If tax rates are the ONLY thing that care about, NJ is not your State" Now, Ciattarelli is making a big deal about taxes and that Murphy doesn't care how old people are forced to leave the State because of high taxes (which isn't true) But more, Murphy clearly is saying that if ALL you want is lowering the marginal tax rate, which is Mitch McConnell's reason to breath, there are more important issues NJ is dealing with. He didn't say taxes weren't an issue, he said is you ONLY care about rates. So the whole thing is a lot of bull.
    I would think Murphy can paint Ciattarelli as a "tax cuts for the rich" Republican quite easily.
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  11. #33191
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    Quote Originally Posted by JackDaw View Post
    When in pessimistic mode (not unknown for me nowadays) I sometimes think the last really big life changing policy by left in UK was creation of National Health Service, back in the 1940s.

    That may be slightly unfair. But I cannot think, for example, of any one big sweeping popular change brought in by the Tony Blair governments, when funds were plentiful. (Indeed I think it is fair to say their deliberate intention was to bring about many small incremental improvements rather than sweeping change.)

    It is fair comment that they could not do anything after the Blair years because Labour have not formed a government. But deep down I think they have consistently failed to come up with reasonably detailed big popular policies. For example, Jeremy Corbyn regularly told us “things must be fairer”, but rarely spelt out how that could be done.

    It is frustrating because it had been obvious (I think) for sometime the overall tax system is massively over-complicated and unfair, but no one is willing to do the work to reform it. It is as if Labour is unwilling to produce detailed policy while in opposition in case the Conservatives would steal it, so effectively Labour is just saying “trust us to make things better”.

    Patently that is not working, there is not enough blind trust.

    Were the last big triumphs of the left in US the 1960S Civil Rights changes?
    The issue is that restructuring the government is a radical step that would not really produce meaningful change, because it would require expending a ton of political capital and face opposition from the right every step of the way, but in the end you just have a system that’s slightly more fair than what we have now. It would be much better to direct that energy toward changing the political realities on the ground.

  12. #33192
    Invincible Member Kirby101's Avatar
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    California needs to change or throw out this recall law. To get a recall election you need a petition with only 12% of the voters. So in a State with 50 million people, you only need to find around a million and a half disgruntled people to remove the governor. And if he doesn't get 50% of the vote, some ******* (and Larry Elder is an *******) can become Governor with only 20& or 25% of the vote.
    They need to put recall reform on the next ballot.
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  13. #33193
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirby101 View Post
    California needs to change or throw out this recall law. To get a recall election you need a petition with only 12% of the voters. So in a State with 50 million people, you only need to find around a million and a half disgruntled people to remove the governor. And if he doesn't get 50% of the vote, some ******* (and Larry Elder is an *******) can become Governor with only 20& or 25% of the vote.
    They need to put recall reform on the next ballot.
    The last time they got lucky in that, the recall worked but the outcome wasn't quite so bad. Arnold may not have been the best Governor, but at least he's intelligent and worked for the people, not for some crazy person like Trump.
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  14. #33194
    The Nature Boy AnakinFlair's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mathew101281 View Post
    was this ever really a thing? I live in one of the more conservative areas of California, and I didn't feel any energy for this recall.
    Watching MSNBC and browsing Instagram, it felt like people were really worried... until the coverage last night, when it became apparent that Newsom was going to win handily.

  15. #33195
    Mighty Member 4saken1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirby101 View Post
    California needs to change or throw out this recall law. To get a recall election you need a petition with only 12% of the voters. So in a State with 50 million people, you only need to find around a million and a half disgruntled people to remove the governor. And if he doesn't get 50% of the vote, some ******* (and Larry Elder is an *******) can become Governor with only 20& or 25% of the vote.
    They need to put recall reform on the next ballot.
    Agreed. If nothing else, they need to set it up so that there is a runoff Election if none of the contenders gets more than 50% of the vote when the recall does pass. Ranked Choice Voting would be nice, but with this many candidates I don't know how they would accomplish that. Frankly, I was alarmed at how many people voted against the recall but didn't choose another Democratic candidate, especially when early polls a few weeks ago had the recall effort with nearly a 50% chance!
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