The Daily Mail is basically Fox News on steroids in a tabloid format for Britain. But even though I wouldn’t depend on it for accuracy, there’s something to be said about a conservative-leaning paper like that printing this story about Gaetz. Where’s there’s smoke there’s usually fire. I’d wager a guess Gaetz goes down hard with some people on the right (Tucker, etc.) turning on him and calling for his resignation.
Agreed, that's why I said if this is remotely true, he fucked. Considering his partner is in jail awaiting trial, that doesn't bode well.
BTW, Orlando sentinel and cnn have both reported the late night visits to the office.
It’s also telling that no Republicans has defended him except Jim Jordan and Marjorie Green. Not exactly great character witnesses. He’s definitely fucked politically. And likely fucked criminally.
Seriously, what is wrong with people? Why would someone go through all these machinations to transport a 17 year old. Is an 18 year old really that different?
18 yr olds are legal and not taboo. For a guy like him nailing an underage girl is an accomplishment at his age.
The Daily Mail is basically Fox News on steroids in a tabloid format for Britain. But even though I wouldn’t depend on it for accuracy, there’s something to be said about a conservative-leaning paper like that printing this story about Gaetz. Where’s there’s smoke there’s usually fire. I’d wager a guess Gaetz goes down hard with some people on the right (Tucker, etc.) turning on him and calling for his resignation.
Agreed, that's why I said if this is remotely true, he fucked. Considering his partner is in jail awaiting trial, that doesn't bode well.
BTW, Orlando sentinel and cnn have both reported the late night visits to the office.
It’s also telling that no Republicans has defended him except Jim Jordan and Marjorie Green. Not exactly great character witnesses. He’s definitely fucked politically. And likely fucked criminally.
Seriously, what is wrong with people? Why would someone go through all these machinations to transport a 17 year old. Is an 18 year old really that different?
18 yr olds are legal and not taboo. For a guy like him nailing an underage girl is an accomplishment at his age.
The Daily Mail is basically Fox News on steroids in a tabloid format for Britain. But even though I wouldn’t depend on it for accuracy, there’s something to be said about a conservative-leaning paper like that printing this story about Gaetz. Where’s there’s smoke there’s usually fire. I’d wager a guess Gaetz goes down hard with some people on the right (Tucker, etc.) turning on him and calling for his resignation.
Agreed, that's why I said if this is remotely true, he fucked. Considering his partner is in jail awaiting trial, that doesn't bode well.
BTW, Orlando sentinel and cnn have both reported the late night visits to the office.
It’s also telling that no Republicans has defended him except Jim Jordan and Marjorie Green. Not exactly great character witnesses. He’s definitely fucked politically. And likely fucked criminally.
Seriously, what is wrong with people? Why would someone go through all these machinations to transport a 17 year old. Is an 18 year old really that different?
The Daily Mail is basically Fox News on steroids in a tabloid format for Britain. But even though I wouldn’t depend on it for accuracy, there’s something to be said about a conservative-leaning paper like that printing this story about Gaetz. Where’s there’s smoke there’s usually fire. I’d wager a guess Gaetz goes down hard with some people on the right (Tucker, etc.) turning on him and calling for his resignation.
Agreed, that's why I said if this is remotely true, he fucked. Considering his partner is in jail awaiting trial, that doesn't bode well.
BTW, Orlando sentinel and cnn have both reported the late night visits to the office.
It’s also telling that no Republicans has defended him except Jim Jordan and Marjorie Green. Not exactly great character witnesses. He’s definitely fucked politically. And likely fucked criminally.
Seriously, what is wrong with people? Why would someone go through all these machinations to transport a 17 year old. Is an 18 year old really that different?
18 yr olds are legal and not taboo. For a guy like him nailing an underage girl is an accomplishment at his age.
And along those same lines.. once they get a subpoena, I wonder if he keeps lists to brag about on his devices.
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EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
The Daily Mail is basically Fox News on steroids in a tabloid format for Britain. But even though I wouldn’t depend on it for accuracy, there’s something to be said about a conservative-leaning paper like that printing this story about Gaetz. Where’s there’s smoke there’s usually fire. I’d wager a guess Gaetz goes down hard with some people on the right (Tucker, etc.) turning on him and calling for his resignation.
Agreed, that's why I said if this is remotely true, he fucked. Considering his partner is in jail awaiting trial, that doesn't bode well.
BTW, Orlando sentinel and cnn have both reported the late night visits to the office.
It’s also telling that no Republicans has defended him except Jim Jordan and Marjorie Green. Not exactly great character witnesses. He’s definitely fucked politically. And likely fucked criminally.
History shows Jordan likes to look the other way at sexual abuse. And MTG? She’s just nuts.
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The Daily Mail is basically Fox News on steroids in a tabloid format for Britain. But even though I wouldn’t depend on it for accuracy, there’s something to be said about a conservative-leaning paper like that printing this story about Gaetz. Where’s there’s smoke there’s usually fire. I’d wager a guess Gaetz goes down hard with some people on the right (Tucker, etc.) turning on him and calling for his resignation.
Agreed, that's why I said if this is remotely true, he fucked. Considering his partner is in jail awaiting trial, that doesn't bode well.
BTW, Orlando sentinel and cnn have both reported the late night visits to the office.
It’s also telling that no Republicans has defended him except Jim Jordan and Marjorie Green. Not exactly great character witnesses. He’s definitely fucked politically. And likely fucked criminally.
Seriously, what is wrong with people? Why would someone go through all these machinations to transport a 17 year old. Is an 18 year old really that different?
18 yr olds are legal and not taboo. For a guy like him nailing an underage girl is an accomplishment at his age.
And along those same lines.. once they get a subpoena, I wonder if he keeps lists to brag about on his devices.
That would be stupid. Then again, you don’t get elected to Congress as a Republican in Florida because of your intelligence.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
A Facebook page shows a child scampering down a school corridor, alerting Ohio families to a scholarship program.
Chatter
fills the same page with news ranging from a state anti-corruption bill
to the vibrant local real estate market. “It’s a great time to be
selling a home in Columbus,” one post celebrates.
Titled
Arise Ohio, the Facebook page is the creation of the American Culture
Project — a nonprofit whose website says its mission is to “empower
Americans with the tools and information necessary to make their voices
heard in their local communities, statehouses and beyond.”
Undisclosed
on the Facebook page is the nonprofit’s partisan goal. Arise Ohio and
similar sites aimed at other politically pivotal states are part of a
novel strategy by a little-known, Republican-aligned group to make today’s GOP more palatable to moderate voters ahead of the 2022 midterms by reshaping the “cultural narrative” on hot-button issues.
That
goal, laid out in a private fundraising appeal sent last month to a
Republican donor and reviewed by The Washington Post, relies on building
new online communities that can be tapped at election time, with a
focus on winning back Congress in 2022.
“We’ve
created a persuasion machine that allows conservatives to reach, engage
and move people to action like never before,” the solicitation states.
“Now is the time to expand and capitalize on this machine, setting the
political playing field in advance of the 2022 election.”
After
condemning President Donald Trump’s actions around the Jan. 6 Capitol
riot, multiple GOP lawmakers have since thrown their support behind him.
(JM Rieger/The Washington Post)
Titled
“Reclaiming the Public Narrative,” the solicitation argues that the
left, because of its clout within cultural institutions, has more access
to centrist voters while the right is stuck “within its own echo
chamber.” It says the group will collect personal data gathered from
petitions and other online tools to target voters using “language
consumed by those in the persuadable middle.”
The
solicitation was sent to Warren Stephens, a billionaire banker based in
Arkansas who backed President Donald Trump’s reelection effort. It was
also inadvertently directed to someone who shared the communications
with The Post. The documents provide an unusual glimpse into the inner
workings of a group whose activities are ordinarily veiled and
illustrate how the Republican Party, still largely defined by Trump, is
straining to connect with the country’s political center.
Stephens, through a spokesman, declined to say whether he had made a contribution to the project.
The American Culture Project is set up as a social welfare organization
exempt from disclosing its donors or paying federal income taxes but,
in exchange, barred from making politics its primary focus. The project
is led by an Illinois-based conservative activist, John Tillman, who
also oversees a libertarian think tank and a news foundation that
recently received grant money to highlight opposition to public health restrictions.
Tillman, who declined to be interviewed for this story, wrote in an
email that the American Culture Project’s objectives are “issue
education and advocacy (not electioneering).”
“We
focus on reaching millions of Americans who can no longer rely on
traditional media to become fully informed on a diversity of views on
the issues of the day,” he wrote. “By reaching millions of Americans
with a broader, more wide ranging set of issues and ideas, we think that
voters will make decisions that will elect people, whether Democrat or
Republican, that believe in America’s founding principles, and
particularly the Bill of Rights.”
While data collection and digital ad targeting have become commonplace
in political campaigns, what’s unusual about the American Culture
Project, experts said, is how it presents its aims as news dissemination
and community building. It touts transparency and civic engagement
using an online network whose donors remain private — part of a bid to
shape public opinion as local news outlets crater and social networks replace traditional forums for political deliberation.
The
arrangement “puts the lie to the public presentation of these
nonprofits as public welfare organizations that might happen to do a
little politics,” said Noah Bookbinder, president of the watchdog group
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “It shows the
system is being abused in ways we knew were happening but you usually
don’t see quite so blatantly.”
Building a persuasion machine
The
American Culture Project makes little about its activities publicly
known. Its website is bare of an employee roster. A tax filing
identifies the mission of the nonprofit, launched in 2019, as the
“promotion of free market solutions to complex national problems.”
But the problem made paramount in the fundraising documents is the left’s cultural dominance, which animates charges of “cancel culture” and “woke supremacy.”
“The
left competes well, not simply in elections, but in the battle for
cultural control,” the March solicitation states. “The outcome of the
2020 election and the Georgia run-off Senate races demonstrate that
Americans are voting in response to cultural cues. Those who control the
narrative of what is and is not acceptable in mainstream society steer
the direction of the country, and as a result, control which politicians
are elected, and which public policies are passed into law. Narrative
matters and is often decisive.”
The
Facebook pages, through organic content and paid posts, cultivate new
ways of engaging with voters by sharing practical information about
everything from education to voting while also seeking to gin up anger
over claims of government malfeasance. In addition to Arise Ohio, other
pages pumping out content include Stand up Florida and Mighty Michigan.
One Facebook ad created by Stand Up Florida simply promises: “Our
followers get updates about Florida government when it matters most.”
Another bashes the state for imposing limitations on craft breweries.
According
to the fundraising documents, the project is already active in five
states: Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia. It is seeking to
expand to six more: Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas and
Wisconsin.
In
each place, the intention is to build an audience that includes at
least a quarter of the state’s voters, the March solicitation explains,
giving the project political sway in the places that matter most to
control of Washington.
“This
means your support of our outreach can be the difference between the
U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate staying under control
of the Democrats or shifting back to pro-freedom Republican majorities,”
the fundraising appeal asserts.
The
expansion envisioned by the American Culture Project involves raising
$24 million this year, according to a budget breakdown. That sum would
cover marketing talent, original research, digital promotion, in-state
liaisons, polling and other efforts. Most costly is “earned audience
acquisition” — spending money, via advertising on Facebook and other
platforms, to build a database of persuadable voters.
The arrangement illustrates why politically aligned nonprofits
have proliferated, and why they pose such a challenge to the Internal
Revenue Service, said David Pozen, a professor of constitutional law and
an expert in nonprofit law at Columbia University.
Intensifying
partisanship, Pozen said, has all but eliminated the distinction
between issue advocacy and campaign activity. “In a world of intense
ideological polarization where the two main parties have almost no
overlap on any significant policy issue, issue advocacy will necessarily
be a kind of partisan activity,” he said. “There is no daylight.”
Driving engagement
Communications from pages sponsored by the American Culture Project inspire intense partisan reactions.
Mighty
Michigan recently highlighted a debate over restrictions on commercial
activity in the state. “Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the federal
government’s chief medical advisor, Anthony Fauci, are bumping heads,”
blared a post. The issue touched a nerve
for one of the page’s followers, who wrote: “Both belong in prison, one
for killing the elderly the other for crimes against humanity.”
Among
the most popular of the American Culture Project’s pages, Mighty
Michigan has gained about 30,000 followers since it was created in the
fall of 2019. Accompanying the Facebook page is a private group
called We Are Mighty. The group’s description suggests its purpose is
to train local influencers. “Members commit to partnering with us to
lead circles of influence and communicate with elected officials,” it
states.
Michigan
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on Jan. 7 said President Trump was
"complicit" in the violent riots that took place at the Capitol a day
earlier. (The Washington Post)
The
group’s administrators also manage similar units in other states,
including Florida and Ohio, with such names as Upstanders and Ohio Grit.
The connections among the various pages and groups, which appear
specific to each state, are not disclosed. The state brands are also
present on Instagram, but these accounts have not yet posted content.
The
connection to the American Culture Project is made clear on a linked
website. “Mighty Michigan is sponsored by the nonprofit American Culture
Project, a national leader in research and civic engagement in the
Midwest and throughout the country,” the website states. It describes
the American Culture Project as a “nonpartisan organization.”
“We do not focus on candidates or elections at any level,” the site maintains.
The
message delivered privately to potential donors is different. “We are
building assets to shape and frame the political field in advance of the
2022 election and beyond,” the solicitation promises.
Tillman’s
assets extend well beyond a handful of Facebook pages focused on
battleground states. In addition to the American Culture Project and the
Illinois Policy Institute, tax filings identify him as chairman of the
Franklin News Foundation, a nonprofit media company that draws revenue
from DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund that backs conservative causes
and allows its contributors to remain anonymous.
The
news foundation recently received a $50,000 grant from DonorsTrust for a
coronavirus-related news project. “This program will offer an alternate
perspective to legacy media’s unfair coverage of individuals who
disagree with state shutdowns as radical or heartless and will be
republished around the country in state and local newspapers, which are
starved for local covid-19 news content,” states the announcement from DonorsTrust, which did not respond to a request for comment.
The
news network, which publishes articles on a website called the Center
Square, concentrates its coverage on 36 states, with a particular focus
on some of the Midwestern states where the American Culture Project is
seeking an online foothold. Arise Ohio and other pages in Tillman’s
network often post stories produced by the Center Square.
The news site, which is among a growing number of journalistic initiatives
undertaken by operatives from both parties, received more than 300,000
average monthly visits last year, according to analysis completed by the
website analytics firm SimilarWeb. Tillman, in an email, said he has
“no involvement at all in the editorial decisions made at the Franklin
News Foundation.”
Though
it declares no partisan affiliation, the news foundation has been led
by people tied to Republican politics. Recent tax filings identify its
director as Kristina Rasmussen, who was chief of staff to Republican
Bruce Rauner when he was governor of Illinois, though she wrote in an
email that she stepped down from the role as director several years ago.
Rasmussen
is now a leader of the American Culture Project. In the March 1 email
to Stephens, Rasmussen was identified as the project’s executive
director. She declined to comment on the project.
“It’s
Potemkin politics,” said Tom Wheeler, a former chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission. “It raises deception to an art form, and it
aids in the de-democratization of media and of public life.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Holy fucking shit, just landed on NewsMax and what pops up? Mike hucksterabee begging money for oppressed Jews in, maybe the Soviet Union? On Easter? The evangelicals are whacked. Pass the snake. Suckers.
why are conservatives to consistently bad at humour/sarcasm?
because they constantly punch down on people.
comedy is only funny when people punch up. that is why it is funny when we dunk on huckabee, trump, gaetz, et al and it is never ever funny when they dunk on other people.
trump was kind of funny when he tried to dunk on kim jong un, but then he got beautiful letters and never tried to dunk on him again. lateral dunks are funny half of the time.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
This is an interesting read that goes over the entire Georgia voting changes. Some are good and some are not so good. Kind of what the GOP is good at, making you believe that they're improving something while ignoring the not so great parts. Probably more accurate to say politicians in general.
Expand access? A historic restriction? What the Georgia voting law really does.
How Georgia voters feel about the state’s new election regulations
One week after it was signed into law, Georgia's Republican-led voting overhaul is facing backlash from a growing number of voting rights advocates. (Mahlia Posey/The Washington Post)
Opponents of Georgia’s new elections law call it a blatant attack on voting rights, aimed specifically at suppressing the minority vote that helped propel Joe Biden’s presidential win and gave Democrats two critical seats in the U.S. Senate. Backlash from the corporate world has been growing, and on Friday Major League Baseball announced it was moving its All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the law. President Biden said last week the law amounts to “Jim Crow in the 21st Century,” calling it “un-American” and “sick.”
But Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who signed the bill into law last month, insists the opposite.
“I’m telling you the truth about this bill,” Kemp insisted on WABE radio, Atlanta’s NPR affiliate, on Tuesday. “It expands access.”
A close examination of the language in the law shows it does contain new restrictions on voting; some are likely to make it disproportionately more difficult for poorer voters and voters of color to cast their ballots.
It’s also correct that there are ways in which the law expands voter access, particularly in ways that will be visible in rural areas.
The context is important of course: This is playing out in the wake of Georgia’s swing to Democrats in the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing baseless charges of fraud from the Trump campaign and its allies. Republican lawmakers in the state — as many of their counterparts across the country have — quickly began drafting a bill critics say is a political reaction from a party beholden to Trump.
It shrinks the window for early and absentee voting. Rather than allowing voters to request ballots six months from Election Day, the new law says voters can start requesting ballots 78 days out; counties can begin sending ballots to voters just 29 days before Election Day, rather than the previous 49 days. Critics say any mail delays with these shorter periods could lead to voters not getting ballots on time, or not being able to return them in time. But proponents of the law say voters simply don’t need the 180 days they used to have to request ballots.
Counties and the state can send mail ballot applications only to voters who request them (as opposed to simply sending every registered voter a ballot) and cannot fill in information ahead of time.
New voter ID requirements. Voters who cast mail ballots will have to provide one of several forms of identification. This provision — which replaces a signature match previously used to confirm voters’ identities — is one of the most controversial because critics say it is likely to disproportionately affect Black voters.
A limit on the number of ballot drop boxes during early voting. It essentially limits the number of drop boxes in each county to one per early-voting site, or one for every 100,000 voters in the county, whichever number is smaller. And the drop boxes can’t be conveniently spread over the county, for example, in places where there aren’t in-person early-voting locations; they all have to be located either in a county election office or at an early-voting precinct location.
Shortened early voting in runoff elections. Instead of a minimum of three weeks of early voting in runoffs, early voting in runoffs will be held in a single Monday-Friday period.
State lawmakers get much more power over county and local elections (and Republicans have decisive majorities in both the state Senate and the state House). The law states that the General Assembly will select the chair of the state elections board, rather than the board being chaired by the Georgia secretary of state — an elected position. The chair is supposed to be nonpartisan. The state election board can investigate county election boards and has the power to suspend county election superintendents — though the law limits the state board to suspending four at a time.
You might remember Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who became the target of his own party’s ire after President Donald Trump asked him to “find” votes in the wake of the 2020 election; this provision seems like a direct reaction to that, ensuring partisan state lawmakers can control the election process more directly.
A ban on handing out food and water within 150 feet of a polling place, or within 25 feet of any voter. Republicans say this is aimed at stopping outside groups from influencing voters; Democrats say it’s supposed to make it harder for people to wait in long lines, particularly on hot or cold days. Election officials are permitted to set up water stations — but they’re not required to do so.
A few ways it expands voting:
A minimum number of drop boxes is guaranteed. Kemp has been arguing publicly that in rural counties that didn’t have drop boxes in previous elections, this is an improvement. While the number of drop boxes is so limited it might not make a huge difference for voters, Kemp is correct that the law for the first time codifies requirements for a minimum number of drop boxes in each county.
An additional day of early voting in most rural counties. The new bill requires at least two Saturdays of early voting for each primary and general election (previous Georgia law required only one). It allows counties to choose when their early-voting locations are open, for a minimum of eight hours a day between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
More resources for precincts so lines don’t get too long. The law basically requires the state to monitor polling locations to see if any have lines longer than an hour, or still have voters waiting in line for more than an hour after polls were supposed to close. In those cases, the state is required to either form new precinct locations to ease the strain or beef up the existing polling locations’ capacity to handle large numbers of voters. This applies specifically to populous precincts, mostly in urban areas.
Here’s what didn’t make it into the bill:
A block on Sunday voting. Earlier proposals called for a ban on Sunday voting. This proposal was seen as directly targeting Black voters, who often vote as part of church-run “souls to the polls” efforts that take place on Sundays.
A ban on no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia Republicans actually passed a bill in the state Senate a few weeks ago that would have banned no-excuse absentee voting, one of the most criticized — but not uniformly agreed upon — GOP proposals in the lead-up to the final bill. A few key Georgia Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R), opposed the idea — and it was ultimately removed from the bill Kemp signed into law.
How does this compare to other states?
Kemp and other defenders of the law say what’s on the books now is in line with voting laws, even in blue states. Kemp cited Biden’s home state of Delaware in a Fox News interview Thursday, pointing to the ways Georgia allows more access.
Georgia’s new voter ID requirement for mail ballots is one interesting comparison point. The state’s old system required a cumbersome — and some said unreliable — signature-matching process, and the new law replaces it with a requirement for a driver’s license, Social Security card or one of a number of other forms of ID prescribed by the state.
That’s actually a little bit less strict than some of the strictest voter ID requirements in the country, where photo ID is required. Other states are closer to Georgia’s new law, requiring some kind of photo or non-photo ID, including a Social Security number. And among those are blue states including Delaware, Washington and Connecticut.
The preservation of no-excuse absentee voting means Georgia isn’t among the most restrictive states in terms of mail-in voting. In 2020, four states required a reason beyond the coronavirus pandemic to vote by mail.
Kat
There's a lot to be said for nowhere. Posts: 4,772
To me, this is the most dangerous part of what's going on. Voters should always decide, shouldn't they?
From the article above:
State lawmakers get much more power over county and local elections (and Republicans have decisive majorities in both the state Senate and the state House). The law states that the General Assembly will select the chair of the state elections board, rather than the board being chaired by the Georgia secretary of state — an elected position. The chair is supposed to be nonpartisan. The state election board can investigate county election boards and has the power to suspend county election superintendents — though the law limits the state board to suspending four at a time.
You might remember Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who became the target of his own party’s ire after President Donald Trump asked him to “find” votes in the wake of the 2020 election; this provision seems like a direct reaction to that, ensuring partisan state lawmakers can control the election process more directly.
To me, this is the most dangerous part of what's going on. Voters should always decide, shouldn't they?
From the article above:
State lawmakers get much more power over county and local elections (and Republicans have decisive majorities in both the state Senate and the state House). The law states that the General Assembly will select the chair of the state elections board, rather than the board being chaired by the Georgia secretary of state — an elected position. The chair is supposed to be nonpartisan. The state election board can investigate county election boards and has the power to suspend county election superintendents — though the law limits the state board to suspending four at a time.
You might remember Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who became the target of his own party’s ire after President Donald Trump asked him to “find” votes in the wake of the 2020 election; this provision seems like a direct reaction to that, ensuring partisan state lawmakers can control the election process more directly.
Unless I’m mistaken, I believe AZ also has introduced legislation that will make it easier to overturn election results in the instance of “irregularities”.
The GOP is setting themselves up to do in the future what they couldn’t do in November: steal the election.
The best defense is a strong offense. Point the finger at someone else and deflect while you do the exact thing you're claiming someone else is doing. People like that are the worst.
To me, this is the most dangerous part of what's going on. Voters should always decide, shouldn't they?
From the article above:
State lawmakers get much more power over county and local elections (and Republicans have decisive majorities in both the state Senate and the state House). The law states that the General Assembly will select the chair of the state elections board, rather than the board being chaired by the Georgia secretary of state — an elected position. The chair is supposed to be nonpartisan. The state election board can investigate county election boards and has the power to suspend county election superintendents — though the law limits the state board to suspending four at a time.
You might remember Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who became the target of his own party’s ire after President Donald Trump asked him to “find” votes in the wake of the 2020 election; this provision seems like a direct reaction to that, ensuring partisan state lawmakers can control the election process more directly.
Unless I’m mistaken, I believe AZ also has introduced legislation that will make it easier to overturn election results in the instance of “irregularities”.
The GOP is setting themselves up to do in the future what they couldn’t do in November: steal the election.
this is going on in multiple states. that is how they gop plans to steal elections going forward. they absolutely cannot win on the issues, so they have to limit the number of votes.
gop will never ever win a national election again if they ran on the issues.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
why are conservatives to consistently bad at humour/sarcasm?
because they constantly punch down on people.
comedy is only funny when people punch up. that is why it is funny when we dunk on huckabee, trump, gaetz, et al and it is never ever funny when they dunk on other people.
trump was kind of funny when he tried to dunk on kim jong un, but then he got beautiful letters and never tried to dunk on him again. lateral dunks are funny half of the time.
i think that's part of it.....I just don't find most of them funny, no matter which direction they are punching.
We need a timeline going at least as far back to trump's 'perfect' phone call to the Ukraine president, detailing all the attempts the GOP took to undermine last years election in advance, in the aftermath, and right up to 1/6 & beyond.
For the first time in our nation's history, the same party that's now trying to tweak election laws around the county, prevented a peaceful transfer of power, and some of you are ok with it?
Comments
For a guy like him nailing an underage girl is an accomplishment at his age.
Pearl Jam bootlegs:
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EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Hillary
President Obama
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George Soros
And the Jewish space lasers
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Inside a stealth ‘persuasion machine’ promising Republican victories in 2022
A Facebook page shows a child scampering down a school corridor, alerting Ohio families to a scholarship program.
Chatter fills the same page with news ranging from a state anti-corruption bill to the vibrant local real estate market. “It’s a great time to be selling a home in Columbus,” one post celebrates.
Titled Arise Ohio, the Facebook page is the creation of the American Culture Project — a nonprofit whose website says its mission is to “empower Americans with the tools and information necessary to make their voices heard in their local communities, statehouses and beyond.”
Undisclosed on the Facebook page is the nonprofit’s partisan goal. Arise Ohio and similar sites aimed at other politically pivotal states are part of a novel strategy by a little-known, Republican-aligned group to make today’s GOP more palatable to moderate voters ahead of the 2022 midterms by reshaping the “cultural narrative” on hot-button issues.
That goal, laid out in a private fundraising appeal sent last month to a Republican donor and reviewed by The Washington Post, relies on building new online communities that can be tapped at election time, with a focus on winning back Congress in 2022.
“We’ve created a persuasion machine that allows conservatives to reach, engage and move people to action like never before,” the solicitation states. “Now is the time to expand and capitalize on this machine, setting the political playing field in advance of the 2022 election.”
Titled “Reclaiming the Public Narrative,” the solicitation argues that the left, because of its clout within cultural institutions, has more access to centrist voters while the right is stuck “within its own echo chamber.” It says the group will collect personal data gathered from petitions and other online tools to target voters using “language consumed by those in the persuadable middle.”
The solicitation was sent to Warren Stephens, a billionaire banker based in Arkansas who backed President Donald Trump’s reelection effort. It was also inadvertently directed to someone who shared the communications with The Post. The documents provide an unusual glimpse into the inner workings of a group whose activities are ordinarily veiled and illustrate how the Republican Party, still largely defined by Trump, is straining to connect with the country’s political center.
Stephens, through a spokesman, declined to say whether he had made a contribution to the project.
Read the fundraising pitch outlining the American Culture Project’s objectives
The American Culture Project is set up as a social welfare organization exempt from disclosing its donors or paying federal income taxes but, in exchange, barred from making politics its primary focus. The project is led by an Illinois-based conservative activist, John Tillman, who also oversees a libertarian think tank and a news foundation that recently received grant money to highlight opposition to public health restrictions. Tillman, who declined to be interviewed for this story, wrote in an email that the American Culture Project’s objectives are “issue education and advocacy (not electioneering).”
“We focus on reaching millions of Americans who can no longer rely on traditional media to become fully informed on a diversity of views on the issues of the day,” he wrote. “By reaching millions of Americans with a broader, more wide ranging set of issues and ideas, we think that voters will make decisions that will elect people, whether Democrat or Republican, that believe in America’s founding principles, and particularly the Bill of Rights.”
While data collection and digital ad targeting have become commonplace in political campaigns, what’s unusual about the American Culture Project, experts said, is how it presents its aims as news dissemination and community building. It touts transparency and civic engagement using an online network whose donors remain private — part of a bid to shape public opinion as local news outlets crater and social networks replace traditional forums for political deliberation.
The arrangement “puts the lie to the public presentation of these nonprofits as public welfare organizations that might happen to do a little politics,” said Noah Bookbinder, president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “It shows the system is being abused in ways we knew were happening but you usually don’t see quite so blatantly.”
Building a persuasion machine
The American Culture Project makes little about its activities publicly known. Its website is bare of an employee roster. A tax filing identifies the mission of the nonprofit, launched in 2019, as the “promotion of free market solutions to complex national problems.”
But the problem made paramount in the fundraising documents is the left’s cultural dominance, which animates charges of “cancel culture” and “woke supremacy.”
“The left competes well, not simply in elections, but in the battle for cultural control,” the March solicitation states. “The outcome of the 2020 election and the Georgia run-off Senate races demonstrate that Americans are voting in response to cultural cues. Those who control the narrative of what is and is not acceptable in mainstream society steer the direction of the country, and as a result, control which politicians are elected, and which public policies are passed into law. Narrative matters and is often decisive.”
The Facebook pages, through organic content and paid posts, cultivate new ways of engaging with voters by sharing practical information about everything from education to voting while also seeking to gin up anger over claims of government malfeasance. In addition to Arise Ohio, other pages pumping out content include Stand up Florida and Mighty Michigan. One Facebook ad created by Stand Up Florida simply promises: “Our followers get updates about Florida government when it matters most.” Another bashes the state for imposing limitations on craft breweries.
According to the fundraising documents, the project is already active in five states: Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia. It is seeking to expand to six more: Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
In each place, the intention is to build an audience that includes at least a quarter of the state’s voters, the March solicitation explains, giving the project political sway in the places that matter most to control of Washington.
“This means your support of our outreach can be the difference between the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate staying under control of the Democrats or shifting back to pro-freedom Republican majorities,” the fundraising appeal asserts.
The expansion envisioned by the American Culture Project involves raising $24 million this year, according to a budget breakdown. That sum would cover marketing talent, original research, digital promotion, in-state liaisons, polling and other efforts. Most costly is “earned audience acquisition” — spending money, via advertising on Facebook and other platforms, to build a database of persuadable voters.
The arrangement illustrates why politically aligned nonprofits have proliferated, and why they pose such a challenge to the Internal Revenue Service, said David Pozen, a professor of constitutional law and an expert in nonprofit law at Columbia University.
Intensifying partisanship, Pozen said, has all but eliminated the distinction between issue advocacy and campaign activity. “In a world of intense ideological polarization where the two main parties have almost no overlap on any significant policy issue, issue advocacy will necessarily be a kind of partisan activity,” he said. “There is no daylight.”
Driving engagement
Communications from pages sponsored by the American Culture Project inspire intense partisan reactions.
Mighty Michigan recently highlighted a debate over restrictions on commercial activity in the state. “Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the federal government’s chief medical advisor, Anthony Fauci, are bumping heads,” blared a post. The issue touched a nerve for one of the page’s followers, who wrote: “Both belong in prison, one for killing the elderly the other for crimes against humanity.”
Among the most popular of the American Culture Project’s pages, Mighty Michigan has gained about 30,000 followers since it was created in the fall of 2019. Accompanying the Facebook page is a private group called We Are Mighty. The group’s description suggests its purpose is to train local influencers. “Members commit to partnering with us to lead circles of influence and communicate with elected officials,” it states.
The group’s administrators also manage similar units in other states, including Florida and Ohio, with such names as Upstanders and Ohio Grit. The connections among the various pages and groups, which appear specific to each state, are not disclosed. The state brands are also present on Instagram, but these accounts have not yet posted content.
The connection to the American Culture Project is made clear on a linked website. “Mighty Michigan is sponsored by the nonprofit American Culture Project, a national leader in research and civic engagement in the Midwest and throughout the country,” the website states. It describes the American Culture Project as a “nonpartisan organization.”
“We do not focus on candidates or elections at any level,” the site maintains.
The message delivered privately to potential donors is different. “We are building assets to shape and frame the political field in advance of the 2022 election and beyond,” the solicitation promises.
Tillman’s assets extend well beyond a handful of Facebook pages focused on battleground states. In addition to the American Culture Project and the Illinois Policy Institute, tax filings identify him as chairman of the Franklin News Foundation, a nonprofit media company that draws revenue from DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund that backs conservative causes and allows its contributors to remain anonymous.
The news foundation recently received a $50,000 grant from DonorsTrust for a coronavirus-related news project. “This program will offer an alternate perspective to legacy media’s unfair coverage of individuals who disagree with state shutdowns as radical or heartless and will be republished around the country in state and local newspapers, which are starved for local covid-19 news content,” states the announcement from DonorsTrust, which did not respond to a request for comment.
The news network, which publishes articles on a website called the Center Square, concentrates its coverage on 36 states, with a particular focus on some of the Midwestern states where the American Culture Project is seeking an online foothold. Arise Ohio and other pages in Tillman’s network often post stories produced by the Center Square.
The news site, which is among a growing number of journalistic initiatives undertaken by operatives from both parties, received more than 300,000 average monthly visits last year, according to analysis completed by the website analytics firm SimilarWeb. Tillman, in an email, said he has “no involvement at all in the editorial decisions made at the Franklin News Foundation.”
Though it declares no partisan affiliation, the news foundation has been led by people tied to Republican politics. Recent tax filings identify its director as Kristina Rasmussen, who was chief of staff to Republican Bruce Rauner when he was governor of Illinois, though she wrote in an email that she stepped down from the role as director several years ago.
Rasmussen is now a leader of the American Culture Project. In the March 1 email to Stephens, Rasmussen was identified as the project’s executive director. She declined to comment on the project.
“It’s Potemkin politics,” said Tom Wheeler, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. “It raises deception to an art form, and it aids in the de-democratization of media and of public life.”
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comedy is only funny when people punch up. that is why it is funny when we dunk on huckabee, trump, gaetz, et al and it is never ever funny when they dunk on other people.
trump was kind of funny when he tried to dunk on kim jong un, but then he got beautiful letters and never tried to dunk on him again. lateral dunks are funny half of the time.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Expand access? A historic restriction? What the Georgia voting law really does.
Opponents of Georgia’s new elections law call it a blatant attack on voting rights, aimed specifically at suppressing the minority vote that helped propel Joe Biden’s presidential win and gave Democrats two critical seats in the U.S. Senate. Backlash from the corporate world has been growing, and on Friday Major League Baseball announced it was moving its All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the law. President Biden said last week the law amounts to “Jim Crow in the 21st Century,” calling it “un-American” and “sick.”
But Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who signed the bill into law last month, insists the opposite.
“I’m telling you the truth about this bill,” Kemp insisted on WABE radio, Atlanta’s NPR affiliate, on Tuesday. “It expands access.”
A close examination of the language in the law shows it does contain new restrictions on voting; some are likely to make it disproportionately more difficult for poorer voters and voters of color to cast their ballots.
It’s also correct that there are ways in which the law expands voter access, particularly in ways that will be visible in rural areas.
The context is important of course: This is playing out in the wake of Georgia’s swing to Democrats in the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing baseless charges of fraud from the Trump campaign and its allies. Republican lawmakers in the state — as many of their counterparts across the country have — quickly began drafting a bill critics say is a political reaction from a party beholden to Trump.
The other important context: The long history of suppressing Black votes.
So let’s look at what it does and doesn’t do.
How the new law limits voting
It shrinks the window for early and absentee voting. Rather than allowing voters to request ballots six months from Election Day, the new law says voters can start requesting ballots 78 days out; counties can begin sending ballots to voters just 29 days before Election Day, rather than the previous 49 days. Critics say any mail delays with these shorter periods could lead to voters not getting ballots on time, or not being able to return them in time. But proponents of the law say voters simply don’t need the 180 days they used to have to request ballots.
Counties and the state can send mail ballot applications only to voters who request them (as opposed to simply sending every registered voter a ballot) and cannot fill in information ahead of time.
New voter ID requirements. Voters who cast mail ballots will have to provide one of several forms of identification. This provision — which replaces a signature match previously used to confirm voters’ identities — is one of the most controversial because critics say it is likely to disproportionately affect Black voters.
A limit on the number of ballot drop boxes during early voting. It essentially limits the number of drop boxes in each county to one per early-voting site, or one for every 100,000 voters in the county, whichever number is smaller. And the drop boxes can’t be conveniently spread over the county, for example, in places where there aren’t in-person early-voting locations; they all have to be located either in a county election office or at an early-voting precinct location.
Shortened early voting in runoff elections. Instead of a minimum of three weeks of early voting in runoffs, early voting in runoffs will be held in a single Monday-Friday period.
State lawmakers get much more power over county and local elections (and Republicans have decisive majorities in both the state Senate and the state House). The law states that the General Assembly will select the chair of the state elections board, rather than the board being chaired by the Georgia secretary of state — an elected position. The chair is supposed to be nonpartisan. The state election board can investigate county election boards and has the power to suspend county election superintendents — though the law limits the state board to suspending four at a time.
You might remember Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who became the target of his own party’s ire after President Donald Trump asked him to “find” votes in the wake of the 2020 election; this provision seems like a direct reaction to that, ensuring partisan state lawmakers can control the election process more directly.
A ban on handing out food and water within 150 feet of a polling place, or within 25 feet of any voter. Republicans say this is aimed at stopping outside groups from influencing voters; Democrats say it’s supposed to make it harder for people to wait in long lines, particularly on hot or cold days. Election officials are permitted to set up water stations — but they’re not required to do so.
A few ways it expands voting:
A minimum number of drop boxes is guaranteed. Kemp has been arguing publicly that in rural counties that didn’t have drop boxes in previous elections, this is an improvement. While the number of drop boxes is so limited it might not make a huge difference for voters, Kemp is correct that the law for the first time codifies requirements for a minimum number of drop boxes in each county.
An additional day of early voting in most rural counties. The new bill requires at least two Saturdays of early voting for each primary and general election (previous Georgia law required only one). It allows counties to choose when their early-voting locations are open, for a minimum of eight hours a day between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
More resources for precincts so lines don’t get too long. The law basically requires the state to monitor polling locations to see if any have lines longer than an hour, or still have voters waiting in line for more than an hour after polls were supposed to close. In those cases, the state is required to either form new precinct locations to ease the strain or beef up the existing polling locations’ capacity to handle large numbers of voters. This applies specifically to populous precincts, mostly in urban areas.
Here’s what didn’t make it into the bill:
A block on Sunday voting. Earlier proposals called for a ban on Sunday voting. This proposal was seen as directly targeting Black voters, who often vote as part of church-run “souls to the polls” efforts that take place on Sundays.
A ban on no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia Republicans actually passed a bill in the state Senate a few weeks ago that would have banned no-excuse absentee voting, one of the most criticized — but not uniformly agreed upon — GOP proposals in the lead-up to the final bill. A few key Georgia Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R), opposed the idea — and it was ultimately removed from the bill Kemp signed into law.
How does this compare to other states?
Kemp and other defenders of the law say what’s on the books now is in line with voting laws, even in blue states. Kemp cited Biden’s home state of Delaware in a Fox News interview Thursday, pointing to the ways Georgia allows more access.
Georgia’s new voter ID requirement for mail ballots is one interesting comparison point. The state’s old system required a cumbersome — and some said unreliable — signature-matching process, and the new law replaces it with a requirement for a driver’s license, Social Security card or one of a number of other forms of ID prescribed by the state.
That’s actually a little bit less strict than some of the strictest voter ID requirements in the country, where photo ID is required. Other states are closer to Georgia’s new law, requiring some kind of photo or non-photo ID, including a Social Security number. And among those are blue states including Delaware, Washington and Connecticut.
The preservation of no-excuse absentee voting means Georgia isn’t among the most restrictive states in terms of mail-in voting. In 2020, four states required a reason beyond the coronavirus pandemic to vote by mail.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/03/georgia-voting-law-explained/
From the article above:
State lawmakers get much more power over county and local elections (and Republicans have decisive majorities in both the state Senate and the state House). The law states that the General Assembly will select the chair of the state elections board, rather than the board being chaired by the Georgia secretary of state — an elected position. The chair is supposed to be nonpartisan. The state election board can investigate county election boards and has the power to suspend county election superintendents — though the law limits the state board to suspending four at a time.
You might remember Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who became the target of his own party’s ire after President Donald Trump asked him to “find” votes in the wake of the 2020 election; this provision seems like a direct reaction to that, ensuring partisan state lawmakers can control the election process more directly.
The GOP is setting themselves up to do in the future what they couldn’t do in November: steal the election.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
www.headstonesband.com
We need a timeline going at least as far back to trump's 'perfect' phone call to the Ukraine president, detailing all the attempts the GOP took to undermine last years election in advance, in the aftermath, and right up to 1/6 & beyond.
For the first time in our nation's history, the same party that's now trying to tweak election laws around the county, prevented a peaceful transfer of power, and some of you are ok with it?
Wake the fuck up.
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