News and Current Events - 2017 - 2022

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Trump's plan for Saturday...

[Jeff Wrangler]

Is Amy Coney Barrett a man?

No, she's a Catholic.

(But so is POTUS.  )

[Jeff Wrangler]

9-1-1 remembrances will be in order for tomorrow, but I don't personally want to delve back into that too much, even though on streaming services there's a dozen new documentaries about it. It's a mindset that I'd rather stay out of. There's enough real life things going on.

I have such mixed feelings. I don't want to be disrespectful of the dead, but I don't want to be forced to focus on it, either. I cannot imagine myself watching a documentary about it. I will not forget that day, but I don't want to relive it, either.

[gattaca]

^^^  Yeap, it's a can of snakes that needs to be beheaded carefully and completely sooner than later. 

It's grounds for dismantling a working democracy and returning the USA to corrupt vigilantism.  Of course, the southern former Confederate states would like nothing more than to "get their way again" - hoods and all.  This is TX poking the hive to see if they get stung... the other red GOP controlled states will follow-suit if they win.   It's much more dangerous than just abortion - though.. 

"Although the rich Republicans it might affect would just go out of state, but since they are Texas residents, could a private company be sued? In other words if Ted Cruz flies his daughter out of state, could you sue American Airlines for transporting her across state lines to get an abortion?"

If the vigilantes can "sue the Lift/Uber driver", then they can sue the airline pilot flying the plane, the ticket agent checking her in, the stewards if they serve her water or food, the McDonalds person serving her a burger, ...   Hell they could even sue the air traffic controller guiding the plane or perhaps even the power company for providing electrical power to the clinic or water company... or HVAC company servicing the place.   There's no limit to the quicksand and that may very well be it's undoing. 

 Pile it on b/c it's ANYONE in the USA can sue, not just native TX.   V.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

No, she's a Catholic.

(But so is POTUS.  )

SEVEN of the current Supreme Court Justices are Catholic. There's also a distinct regional bias when it comes to appointing justices. There are rarely any justices who were born or lived their lives mostly West of the Mississippi.


John G. Roberts - Roman Catholic (born NY, lived mostly D.C.)
Brett Kavanaugh - Roman Catholic (born lived D.C.)
Neil Gorsuch - (observers are not sure if he considers himself Catholic or Episcopalian) (born CO, lived CO)
Clarence Thomas - Roman Catholic (born GA, lived DC)
Stephen G. Breyer - Jewish (born CA. lived MA)
Samuel A. Alito, Jr. - Roman Catholic (born lived NJ)
Sonia Sotomayor - Roman Catholic (born lived NY)
Elena Kagan - Jewish (born lived NY)
Amy Coney Barrett - Roman Catholic (born LA lived DC)

The biggest change we need to the Supreme Court is term limits. The founding fathers didn't envision justices living 10-20-30 years longer as they do now. And each President should be able to nominate only 1 per term. (Possibly two.) And however it needs to happen, politicans like Moscow Mitch shouldn't be able to prevent a President from picking a nominee and having them confirmed.

[gattaca]

^^^ Term limits are a must have!
> No single justice should EVER serve more than 20 years in SCOTUS. 
> No president should be able to appoint more than 1 Judge to SCOTUS per TERM.
> When a Justice leaves the court either by death or retirement, then the sitting president appoints the next justice period. No creating BS rule by either party.   
> The US Senate cannot make up rules as they go to get their way and block or confirm appointments.

Level the playing field and make the all play by the same rules.  V.

[Jeff Wrangler]

And however it needs to happen, politicians like Moscow Mitch shouldn't be able to prevent a President from picking a nominee and having them confirmed.

The blatant, shameless political hypocrisy still makes me want to throw up (even though it doesn't really surprise me): Don't let Merrick Garland even be considered because it was an election year, but rush through Coney Barrett because it was an election year.

McConnell should have a fit of apoplexy. Then we'll all have a party. ...

[Lyle (Mooska)]

A sigh of relief. It always felt like this was a big waste of money and time that no one wanted, but you can never underestimate the cretins nowadays...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Beats Back GOP-Led Recall, Cruises to Victory; Sweeps Election
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/californians-decide-governors-fate-republican-backed-recall-2021-09-14/

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom handily beat back an effort to oust him from office in Tuesday's special election, overcoming a Republican campaign to unseat him over his liberal policies on immigration, COVID-19 and crime.

Newsom, a first-term governor beset by challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme drought and severe wildfires, boosted turnout among Democrats with a flurry of late campaigning and easily overcame the move by Republicans to recall him.

By late Tuesday, returns showed Newsom easily winning a majority of support from voters who said he should remain in office. Television networks projected Newsom had defeated the recall effort about 40 minutes after polls closed on Tuesday.

As of midnight PT, with 2/3 of the votes counted the results are:

Should Gov. Gavin Newsom be recalled?
September 14, 2021

Voter choice: Yes, replace him
Vote percentage: 34.0%
Total votes: 3,110,655 votes

Voter choice: No, keep him    ✓ winner
Vote percentage: 66.0%
5,753,093 votes

[Jeff Wrangler]

Heard that on the Today show this morning. Very good news indeed.

A sigh of relief. It always felt like this was a big waste of money and time that no one wanted, but you can never underestimate the cretins nowadays...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Beats Back GOP-Led Recall, Cruises to Victory; Sweeps Election
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/californians-decide-governors-fate-republican-backed-recall-2021-09-14/

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom handily beat back an effort to oust him from office in Tuesday's special election, overcoming a Republican campaign to unseat him over his liberal policies on immigration, COVID-19 and crime.

Newsom, a first-term governor beset by challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme drought and severe wildfires, boosted turnout among Democrats with a flurry of late campaigning and easily overcame the move by Republicans to recall him.

By late Tuesday, returns showed Newsom easily winning a majority of support from voters who said he should remain in office. Television networks projected Newsom had defeated the recall effort about 40 minutes after polls closed on Tuesday.

As of midnight PT, with 2/3 of the votes counted the results are:

Should Gov. Gavin Newsom be recalled?
September 14, 2021

Voter choice: Yes, replace him
Vote percentage: 34.0%
Total votes: 3,110,655 votes

Voter choice: No, keep him    ✓ winner
Vote percentage: 66.0%
5,753,093 votes

[fritzkep]

Whew.

Defeating the governor would have just encouraged the crazies, not that they need much encouragement.

[gattaca]

^^^ While that's great news for CA... (I was on edge)... sadly, it is my understanding that due to CA's very low recall count % rules, the GOP asswipes can start it all over again. Sort of like - unlimited harassment supported by unlimited, unreported dark $.   We need to get all the dark, unreported $ outta politics and dismantle these hiding donors.   V.

[killersmom]

A sigh of relief. It always felt like this was a big waste of money and time that no one wanted, but you can never underestimate the cretins nowadays...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Beats Back GOP-Led Recall, Cruises to Victory; Sweeps Election
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/californians-decide-governors-fate-republican-backed-recall-2021-09-14/

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom handily beat back an effort to oust him from office in Tuesday's special election, overcoming a Republican campaign to unseat him over his liberal policies on immigration, COVID-19 and crime.

Newsom, a first-term governor beset by challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme drought and severe wildfires, boosted turnout among Democrats with a flurry of late campaigning and easily overcame the move by Republicans to recall him.

By late Tuesday, returns showed Newsom easily winning a majority of support from voters who said he should remain in office. Television networks projected Newsom had defeated the recall effort about 40 minutes after polls closed on Tuesday.

As of midnight PT, with 2/3 of the votes counted the results are:

Should Gov. Gavin Newsom be recalled?
September 14, 2021

Voter choice: Yes, replace him
Vote percentage: 34.0%
Total votes: 3,110,655 votes

Voter choice: No, keep him    ✓ winner
Vote percentage: 66.0%
5,753,093 votes

This was the first news story I read this morning when I got up. I had seen a story late yesterday that the early voting showed that Newsom was going to have a large win, but it was good to see it for sure when I woke up.

[BlueAmber63]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/17/prince-philip-duke-edinburgh-will-secret-90-years-queen-dignity


I don't get this....I really don't.
He was either as rich as Croesus .....or poor as a church mouse !
Which ever way... this is the only reason that could embarrass
the Queen to my way thinking.
The secrecy as stated is to protect the Queen....and the Public interest !

[CellarDweller115]

Pro-Trump Rally Expecting 10,000 Attendees Sees Only a Few Hundred Show Up

By Jason Lemon - 9/12/21



Organizers of a Kentucky rally in support of former President Donald Trump featuring several prominent allies and conspiracy theorists expected some 10,000 people to show up this weekend. Instead, less than 300 were in attendance when local journalists attempted to cover the proceedings.

The "We the People Reunion" was held at the Muhlenberg County Agriculture & Convention Center Fairgrounds in Powderly, Kentucky, on Friday and Saturday. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, retired General Michael Flynn, attorney Lin Wood and others were among the featured speakers, according to the event and ticket page online.

Local channel WFIE 14 News sent a team to shoot video at the event on Friday but was later asked to leave, according to a report broadcast by the NBC News affiliate. The news channel reported that promoters had expected a crowd of about 10,000 people but less than 300 were in attendance from what their journalists saw. Event organizers reportedly refused to speak to WFIE about the rally.

https://www.newsweek.com/pro-trump-rally-expecting-10000-attendees-sees-only-few-hundred-show-1628299

[CellarDweller115]

Trump campaign knew lawyers’ voting machine claims were baseless, memo shows

By Alan Feuer - September 21, 2021


Two weeks after the 2020 election, a team of lawyers closely allied with President Donald Trump held a widely watched news conference at the Republican Party’s headquarters in Washington. At the event, they laid out a bizarre conspiracy theory claiming that a voting machine company had worked with an election software firm, financier George Soros, and Venezuela to steal the presidential contest from Trump.

But there was a problem for the Trump team, according to court documents released Monday evening.

By the time the news conference occurred Nov. 19, Trump’s campaign had already prepared an internal memo on many of the outlandish claims about the company, Dominion Voting Systems, and the separate software company, Smartmatic. The memo had determined that those allegations were untrue.

The court papers, which were initially filed late last week as a motion in a defamation lawsuit brought against the campaign and others by a former Dominion employee, Eric Coomer, contain evidence that officials in the Trump campaign were aware early on that many of the claims against the companies were baseless.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/21/nation/trump-campaign-knew-lawyers-voting-machine-claims-were-baseless-memo-shows/