Don’t think we’re a banana republic? Think again. Abbott & Costello in charge. And auditioning to be POOTWH’s veep.
Abbott grants Daniel Perry pardon in murder of Black Lives Matter protester
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is pardoning Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter march, on Thursday after a review board recommended he be released from prison.
“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” he said in a statement. “I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.”
Abbott has long vowed to pardon Perry, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year. After Perry’s conviction, unsealed court records revealed that he regularly shared racist memes and threatening content in private messages and social media posts, including descriptions of killing protesters and minorities.
Perry was convicted of murder in the death of 28-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran Garrett Foster, who was legally armed with an AK-47 rifle, during a 2020 confrontation in downtown Austin at a racial justice demonstration. At the time, his attorneys vowed to appeal.
In a statement, Perry’s attorney, Doug O’Connell, said the board took time to review evidence and interview witnesses “to get to the truth” of the encounter between Foster and Perry that night in Austin in 2020. The decision, he said, corrects “the courtroom travesty” that left his client behind bars for 372 days and resulted in the end of Perry’s military career.
“He is thrilled and elated to be free,” O’Connell wrote. “He wishes that this tragic event never happened and wishes he never had to defend himself against Mr. Foster’s unlawful actions.”
The governor in his declaration criticized Travis County District Attorney José Garza’s handling of the case. He resurfaced allegations that arose during the trial, accusing the prosecutor of directing the lead detective in the case to withhold evidence from the grand jury andaccusing him of misconduct and bias.
“Rather than upholding the self-defense rights of citizens,” Abbott wrote, Garza “has prioritized ‘reducing access to guns’ that citizens may use to lawfully defend themselves”
Travis County Judge Clifford Brown reviewed those accusations during the trial phase of the case when defense attorneys filed a motion for a mistrial. He ultimately denied the motion.
Garza strongly condemned the pardon, saying the state board and governor are sending a message that some lives matter and others do not under the law in Texas.
“The Board and the Governor have put their politics over justice and made a mockery of our legal system,” the district attorney said in a statement. “They should be ashamed of themselves.”
Garza, a Democrat, has become the target of conservatives in the state and in his more left-leaning county after the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law limiting the discretion of elected district attorneys to prosecute certain offenses. The 2023 law signed by the governor allows private citizens to file petitions against district attorneys, specifically those who may refuse to prosecute criminal offenses such as a low-level drug or abortion-related cases.
A Travis County resident recently filed a petition to the court to remove Garza from office for official misconduct and it is under review.
“The petition is meritless and we are confident it will ultimately be dismissed,” Garza said.
The Perry case attracted attention from conservative news personalities who called on Abbott to act, drawing comparisons between Perry’s self-defense claims and Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager acquitted after fatally shooting two men and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020 amid unrest after a police shooting.
Perry was driving for a ride-share service in July 2020 when he sped his car onto a street in Austin that was crowded with protesters and got into a confrontation with Foster, who had the rifle strapped to his chest. Prosecutors argued Perry could have driven away. But he fatally shot Foster.
In its statement Thursday, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles said it had reached its decision in the case after conducting a “meticulous review” of police reports, court records and witness statements in the case. Abbott appointed all the members serving on the board composed of legal professionals. The governor urged them to conduct an expedited review of Perry’s case a day after his conviction, and weeks before his sentencing. Then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson pressured him to do so.
The board’s highly unorthodox review, experts said, did not commence until after the criminal case was over. But they did not wait — as is normally the case — for the appellate process to play out.
“After a thorough examination of the amassed information, the parole board reached a decision,” the panel said in a statement. “The Board voted unanimously to recommend a full pardon and restoration of firearm rights.”
The behavior surprised longtime observers.
“The parole board in Texas is not supposed to be a judicial body. They don’t engage in re-litigating the facts of the case. That’s not the board’s job and never has been,” said attorney Gary Cohen, who has represented offenders before the board for four decades. “What the board did and the governor did, is a complete perversion of justice and it has dire and drastic consequences for public confidence and safety.”
Clemency is ordinarily granted in cases where offenders have exhausted their appeals and later petition the board, demonstrating some degree of rehabilitation. In this case, the governor took the unprecedented step of petitioning on Perry’s behalf, Cohen said.
It is not the first time the state board has run into political quagmires.
After his death, the pardon and parole board recommended Abbott pardon George Floyd’s 2004 drug conviction, which involved a police officer later charged with crimes related to falsifying records. The governor did nothing and enough pressure built that the board members eventually rescinded their recommendation.
Foster’s family was devastated by the board’s decision. Sheila Foster initially pursued a lawsuit against Perry in her son’s slaying. But after he was convicted, Foster felt he had been held sufficiently accountable and looked to dismiss it, her attorney Quentin Brogdon said.
“We both hoped the governor of Texas would not follow through on his threats,” he said. “Unfortunately, he has turned the rule of law on its head.”
Foster’s options for reviving her lawsuit are limited but she is exploring them, Brogdon said.
“But today she is simply at a loss for words and extremely disappointed in our system of justice,” her attorney said.
Foster’s girlfriend, Whitney Mitchell, who was with him at the time of his death, said a jury rightly convicted Perry as a murderer and his text messages were proof enough for them that he had planned to kill demonstrators that night.
“With this pardon, the Governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan and US Air Force veteran, and impugned that jury’s just verdict,” Mitchell said in a statement through her attorney. “He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his — and different from those in power — can be killed in this State with impunity.”
Don’t think we’re a banana republic? Think again. Abbott & Costello in charge. And auditioning to be POOTWH’s veep.
Abbott grants Daniel Perry pardon in murder of Black Lives Matter protester
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is pardoning Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter march, on Thursday after a review board recommended he be released from prison.
“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” he said in a statement. “I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.”
Abbott has long vowed to pardon Perry, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year. After Perry’s conviction, unsealed court records revealed that he regularly shared racist memes and threatening content in private messages and social media posts, including descriptions of killing protesters and minorities.
Perry was convicted of murder in the death of 28-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran Garrett Foster, who was legally armed with an AK-47 rifle, during a 2020 confrontation in downtown Austin at a racial justice demonstration. At the time, his attorneys vowed to appeal.
In a statement, Perry’s attorney, Doug O’Connell, said the board took time to review evidence and interview witnesses “to get to the truth” of the encounter between Foster and Perry that night in Austin in 2020. The decision, he said, corrects “the courtroom travesty” that left his client behind bars for 372 days and resulted in the end of Perry’s military career.
“He is thrilled and elated to be free,” O’Connell wrote. “He wishes that this tragic event never happened and wishes he never had to defend himself against Mr. Foster’s unlawful actions.”
The governor in his declaration criticized Travis County District Attorney José Garza’s handling of the case. He resurfaced allegations that arose during the trial, accusing the prosecutor of directing the lead detective in the case to withhold evidence from the grand jury andaccusing him of misconduct and bias.
“Rather than upholding the self-defense rights of citizens,” Abbott wrote, Garza “has prioritized ‘reducing access to guns’ that citizens may use to lawfully defend themselves”
Travis County Judge Clifford Brown reviewed those accusations during the trial phase of the case when defense attorneys filed a motion for a mistrial. He ultimately denied the motion.
Garza strongly condemned the pardon, saying the state board and governor are sending a message that some lives matter and others do not under the law in Texas.
“The Board and the Governor have put their politics over justice and made a mockery of our legal system,” the district attorney said in a statement. “They should be ashamed of themselves.”
Garza, a Democrat, has become the target of conservatives in the state and in his more left-leaning county after the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law limiting the discretion of elected district attorneys to prosecute certain offenses. The 2023 law signed by the governor allows private citizens to file petitions against district attorneys, specifically those who may refuse to prosecute criminal offenses such as a low-level drug or abortion-related cases.
A Travis County resident recently filed a petition to the court to remove Garza from office for official misconduct and it is under review.
“The petition is meritless and we are confident it will ultimately be dismissed,” Garza said.
The Perry case attracted attention from conservative news personalities who called on Abbott to act, drawing comparisons between Perry’s self-defense claims and Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager acquitted after fatally shooting two men and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020 amid unrest after a police shooting.
Perry was driving for a ride-share service in July 2020 when he sped his car onto a street in Austin that was crowded with protesters and got into a confrontation with Foster, who had the rifle strapped to his chest. Prosecutors argued Perry could have driven away. But he fatally shot Foster.
In its statement Thursday, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles said it had reached its decision in the case after conducting a “meticulous review” of police reports, court records and witness statements in the case. Abbott appointed all the members serving on the board composed of legal professionals. The governor urged them to conduct an expedited review of Perry’s case a day after his conviction, and weeks before his sentencing. Then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson pressured him to do so.
The board’s highly unorthodox review, experts said, did not commence until after the criminal case was over. But they did not wait — as is normally the case — for the appellate process to play out.
“After a thorough examination of the amassed information, the parole board reached a decision,” the panel said in a statement. “The Board voted unanimously to recommend a full pardon and restoration of firearm rights.”
The behavior surprised longtime observers.
“The parole board in Texas is not supposed to be a judicial body. They don’t engage in re-litigating the facts of the case. That’s not the board’s job and never has been,” said attorney Gary Cohen, who has represented offenders before the board for four decades. “What the board did and the governor did, is a complete perversion of justice and it has dire and drastic consequences for public confidence and safety.”
Clemency is ordinarily granted in cases where offenders have exhausted their appeals and later petition the board, demonstrating some degree of rehabilitation. In this case, the governor took the unprecedented step of petitioning on Perry’s behalf, Cohen said.
It is not the first time the state board has run into political quagmires.
After his death, the pardon and parole board recommended Abbott pardon George Floyd’s 2004 drug conviction, which involved a police officer later charged with crimes related to falsifying records. The governor did nothing and enough pressure built that the board members eventually rescinded their recommendation.
Foster’s family was devastated by the board’s decision. Sheila Foster initially pursued a lawsuit against Perry in her son’s slaying. But after he was convicted, Foster felt he had been held sufficiently accountable and looked to dismiss it, her attorney Quentin Brogdon said.
“We both hoped the governor of Texas would not follow through on his threats,” he said. “Unfortunately, he has turned the rule of law on its head.”
Foster’s options for reviving her lawsuit are limited but she is exploring them, Brogdon said.
“But today she is simply at a loss for words and extremely disappointed in our system of justice,” her attorney said.
Foster’s girlfriend, Whitney Mitchell, who was with him at the time of his death, said a jury rightly convicted Perry as a murderer and his text messages were proof enough for them that he had planned to kill demonstrators that night.
“With this pardon, the Governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan and US Air Force veteran, and impugned that jury’s just verdict,” Mitchell said in a statement through her attorney. “He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his — and different from those in power — can be killed in this State with impunity.”
But I’m not really that optimistic. History tells us that repressive movements enabled by cowards and hucksters are just as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the legitimately hateful. You can wreck a country with cosplaying careerists just as easily as you can with bloodthirsty revolutionaries.
But I’m not really that optimistic. History tells us that repressive movements enabled by cowards and hucksters are just as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the legitimately hateful. You can wreck a country with cosplaying careerists just as easily as you can with bloodthirsty revolutionaries.
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Montana's attorney general said he recruited token primary opponent to increase campaign fundraising
By AMY BETH HANSON
Yesterday
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana's attorney general told supporters he skirted the state’s campaign finance laws by inviting another Republican to run against him as a token candidate in next month's primary so he could raise more money for the November general election, according to a recording from a fundraising event.
“I do technically have a primary," Attorney General Austin Knudsen said last week when asked at the event who was running against him. “However, he is a young man who I asked to run against me because our campaign laws are ridiculous."
Knudsen separately faces dozens of professional misconduct allegations from the state's office of attorney discipline as he seeks a second term. He made the comments about his primary opponent during the fundraiser on May 11 in Dillon, Montana, according to the recording obtained by the Daily Montanan, which is part of the nonprofit States Newsroom organization.
In the recording, Knudsen is heard saying that Logan Olson “filed to run against me simply because under our current campaign finance laws in Montana, it allows me to raise more money. So, he supports me and he’s going to vote for me.”
Knudsen’s senior campaign adviser Jake Eaton declined to comment on the recording.
Olson, a county attorney in rural northeastern Montana, denied being recruited by Knudsen. Campaign finance records indicate his filing fee was paid by a longtime Republican operative who is also a Knudsen donor.
The state’s campaign finance watchdog agency, the Commissioner of Political Practices, is investigating complaints filed by the executive director of the Montana Democratic Party that allege an agreement between Knudsen and Olson.
Under state law, a person cannot pay or “promise valuable consideration” to another person to induce them to be a candidate, or to withdraw as a candidate.
Democrat Sheila Hogan's complaints say Knudsen started raising donations exceeding the $790-per person allowed without a primary opponent long before Olson filed on March 11 — the final day for candidate filing.
“Olson is not a legitimate, good faith candidate for Attorney General,” both complaints state.
Eaton, who called the complaint against Knudsen frivolous, said it was “common practice for candidates to accept primary and general contributions and then return the money if there is no contested primary."
He suggested Democratic Attorney General candidate Ben Alke, a Bozeman attorney, was also accepting more money than what is allowed from individual donors.
However, a search of Alke's campaign finance reports shows only contributions to his primary campaign.
Knudsen and Olson have until May 23 to respond to the complaints, although Olson has requested an extension, commissioner Chris Gallus said Friday.
Olson has not raised or spent any money in the race, according to a report filed by his treasurer on Friday.
His April campaign finance report listed a debt of more than $1,500 to Standard Consulting of Helena for reimbursement of his filing fee.
“I did pay Logan’s filing fee and helped him file for office,” Chuck Denowh, a Republican operative and owner of Standard Consulting, said in an email Friday. “I did so because he asked me to.”
Denowh has donated $1,580 to Knudsen -- $790 each for the primary and general elections.
Alke said the professional misconduct allegations and other actions by Knudsen are why he's running for attorney general.
Knudsen is facing 41 counts of professional misconduct on allegations his office tried to undermine the Montana Supreme Court while defending a challenge to a state law about judicial nominations. The Commission on Practice is scheduled to hear the case in mid-July and recommend whether Knudsen should be punished.
Separately, in early 2021 Knudsen ordered the Lewis and Clark County attorney to dismiss concealed carry weapons charges against a man who allegedly threatened a restaurant manager trying to enforce the state's pandemic mask mandate. Knudsen's office later pleaded the case down to disorderly conduct.
In October 2021, a Helena hospital said three unspecified public officials threatened doctors after they refused to treat a COVID-19 patient with ivermectin, a drug for parasites that is not federally approved for the virus. Knudsen’s office later confirmed that he participated in a conference call with hospital executives and that he sent a Montana Highway Patrol trooper to the hospital to talk with the patient’s family after they claimed mistreatment — something the hospital denied.
“This sort of conduct from the chief legal officer and law enforcement officer of the state of Montana is inappropriate and I hope people are paying attention because this is just one of several issues with Austin Knudsen,” Alke said Thursday.
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In a place with a history of hate, an unlikely fight against GOP extremism By Hannah Allam May 20, 2024 at 12:29 ET COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Locals prefer not to talk about the hate that took root here a generation ago, when the Aryan Nations and other militants built a white supremacist paradise among the tall pines and crystal lakes of North Idaho. Community activists, backed by national civil rights groups, bankrupted the neo-Nazis in court and eventually forced them to move, a hard-fought triumph memorialized in scenes from 2001 of a backhoe smashing through a giant swastika at the former Aryan compound just outside of Coeur d’Alene, the biggest city in this part of the state. For much of the two decades since, civic leaders have focused on moving beyond the image of North Idaho as a white-power fiefdom. They steered attention instead to emerald golf courses and gleaming lakeside resorts where celebrities such as Kim Kardashian sip huckleberry cocktails. Now, however, North Idaho residents are confronting that history head-on as a new movement builds against far-right extremism. This time, activists say, the threat is no longer on the fringes of society, dressed in Nazi garb at a hideout in the woods. Instead, they see it in the leadership of the local Republican Party, which has mirrored the lurch to the right of the national conservative movement during the Trump era on matters of race, religion and sexuality. The bigotry of the past, they say, now has mainstream political cover. In this ruby-red state, the pushback is being led from within the party. A group of disaffected, self-described “traditional” Republicans has spent the past two years planning to wrest back control from leaders who they accuse of steering the local GOP toward extremism, a charge the officials vehemently deny. A crucial measure of the challengers’ efforts comes Tuesday, Idaho’s primary day. If the breakaway group can succeed, it would make North Idaho an unlikely setting for something rare: A meaningful internal rebellion against the forces that have driven the Republican Party toward open embraces of far-right rhetoric and policies since Donald Trump first claimed the GOP presidential nomination eight years ago.
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Courtney Gore has disavowed the far-right platform she
campaigned on when she won election to the Granbury ISD school board.
Credit:
Shelby Tauber for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. Also, sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Weeks after
winning a school board seat in her deeply red Texas county, Courtney
Gore immersed herself in the district’s curriculum, spending her nights
and weekends poring over hundreds of pages of lesson plans that she had
fanned out on the coffee table in her living room and even across her
bed. She was searching for evidence of the sweeping national movement
she had warned on the campaign trail was indoctrinating schoolchildren.
Gore, the
co-host of a far-right online talk show, had promised that she would be a
strong Republican voice on the nonpartisan school board. Citing “small
town, conservative Christian values,” she pledged to inspect educational
materials for inappropriate messages about sexuality and race and
remove them from every campus in the 7,700-student Granbury Independent
School District, an hour southwest of Fort Worth. “Over the years our
American Education System has been hijacked by Leftists looking to
indoctrinate our kids into the ‘progressive’ way of thinking, and yes,
they’ve tried to do this in Granbury ISD,” she wrote in a September 2021
Facebook post, two months before the election. “I cannot sit by and
watch their twisted worldview infiltrate Granbury ISD.”
But after taking office and examining hundreds of pages of curriculum, Gore was shocked by what she found — and didn’t find.
The pervasive
indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children
were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical
race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism.
She’d examined curriculum related to social-emotional learning, which
has come under attack
by Christian conservatives who say it encourages children to question
gender roles and prioritizes feelings over biblical teachings. Instead,
Gore found the materials taught children “how to be a good friend, a
good human.”
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Haley is so pathetic...Don Jr was ripping her recently. Not sure what her angle is.
The quote I heard from her included some blather about the debt under Biden which is laughable given her comments about the debt under tRump.
I'd say she's looking for a position in his potential administration so she can stay in the public eye and make a run for president in 2028. She did better than any R against Trump and she has a decent core of voters who cast ballots for her even after she dropped out. (Those could have been anti-Trump votes as well, though.) With him out of the way in '28, she could just have enough backing to make a run as the Republican nominee.
Ohio governor calls special session to pass legislation ensuring President Biden is on 2024 ballot
Yesterday
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that he is calling a rare special session of the General Assembly next week to pass legislation ensuring that President Joe Biden is on the state's 2024 ballot.
The special session was called for Tuesday.
“Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, the sitting President of the United States, on the ballot this fall. Failing to do so is simply unacceptable. This is ridiculous. This is (an) absurd situation,” DeWine said.
The Democratic National Convention, where Biden is to be formally nominated, falls after Ohio’s ballot deadline of Aug. 7. The convention will be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
Since Ohio changed its certification deadline from 60 to 90 days ahead of the general election, state lawmakers have had to adjust the requirement twice, in 2012 and 2020, to accommodate candidates of both parties. Each change was only temporary.
This year lawmakers were unable to come up with a fix by the May 9 cutoff set by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
DeWine said he spoke to LaRose on Thursday and he said we’re “up against a wall.” LaRose told him next Wednesday is the drop-dead deadline.
“I’ve waited. I’ve been patient. And my patience has run out,” DeWine said.
DeWine said his proclamation will allow for passing a Senate version of the bill that also bans foreign nationals from contributing to Ohio ballot measures.
The proposal has been described as a “poison pill” in the fractured Ohio House, where Republicans rely on Democratic votes for pass some legislation.
In a statement, a spokesman for Senate President Matt Huffman encouraged House leadership to allow a vote on House Bill 114.
“We agree with the Governor. It is time to protect Ohio’s elections by outlawing foreign campaign contributions, while at the same time fixing the Democratic Party’s error that kept Joe Biden off the November ballot,” the statement said.
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said after the governor spoke that a “clean” House bill that would change the ballot deadline on a permanent basis also could be considered.
Ohio House Democratic leader Allison Russo said via the social platform X that money from foreign donors is already illegal and the real issue is dark money going to candidates.
“GOP strategy: change the rules when you can’t win,” Russo said. “They’re terrified when citizens use their voice w/ direct democracy, so now they want to completely upend citizens’ ability to fund ballot initiatives. Any talk of “foreign money” is a red herring.”
State Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters accused GOP lawmakers of politicizing the process and disenfranchising Ohioans.
“We must pass the Ohio Anti-Corruption Act, which would require dark money groups to identify their funders, disclose their spending, and strengthen the ban on foreign money,” Walters said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, Republican politicians who hold supermajorities in both chambers at the statehouse must put politics aside and pass a clean bill to put Joe Biden on the ballot,” she continued. “Despite Republicans’ political gamesmanship, we’re confident Joe Biden will be on the Ohio ballot.”
Republican state House Speaker Jason Stephens said lawmakers have language that bans foreign influence from ballot issue campaigns without hurting the rights of citizens.
“We look forward to real solutions that will actually pass both chambers next week and solve problems,” Stephens said in a statement.
And fellow Republican JD Vance, U.S. senator from Ohio, issued a statement saying the calling of a special session is a “reasonable compromise.”
Vance expressed confidence that former President Donald Trump would beat Biden regardless of whether he's on the ballot, but he said “a lot of Trump voters might sit at home if there isn’t a real presidential race, and that will really hurt our down ballot races for the Senate and Congress. We need to play chess.”
The Ohio Republican Party strongly supports DeWine’s decision, chairman Alex M. Triantafilou said.
There was no immediate response by the Biden campaign to a message requesting comment.
Alabama recently changed its law to ensure Biden will appear on fall ballots. The Alabama bill offered accommodations to the president like those made four years ago for then-President Donald Trump.
The last time Ohio lawmakers were ordered back to Columbus in a such a manner was in 2004, under Republican Gov. Bob Taft, to consider campaign finance reform
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Ohio governor calls special session to pass legislation ensuring President Biden is on 2024 ballot
Yesterday
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that he is calling a rare special session of the General Assembly next week to pass legislation ensuring that President Joe Biden is on the state's 2024 ballot.
The special session was called for Tuesday.
“Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, the sitting President of the United States, on the ballot this fall. Failing to do so is simply unacceptable. This is ridiculous. This is (an) absurd situation,” DeWine said.
The Democratic National Convention, where Biden is to be formally nominated, falls after Ohio’s ballot deadline of Aug. 7. The convention will be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
Since Ohio changed its certification deadline from 60 to 90 days ahead of the general election, state lawmakers have had to adjust the requirement twice, in 2012 and 2020, to accommodate candidates of both parties. Each change was only temporary.
This year lawmakers were unable to come up with a fix by the May 9 cutoff set by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
DeWine said he spoke to LaRose on Thursday and he said we’re “up against a wall.” LaRose told him next Wednesday is the drop-dead deadline.
“I’ve waited. I’ve been patient. And my patience has run out,” DeWine said.
DeWine said his proclamation will allow for passing a Senate version of the bill that also bans foreign nationals from contributing to Ohio ballot measures.
The proposal has been described as a “poison pill” in the fractured Ohio House, where Republicans rely on Democratic votes for pass some legislation.
In a statement, a spokesman for Senate President Matt Huffman encouraged House leadership to allow a vote on House Bill 114.
“We agree with the Governor. It is time to protect Ohio’s elections by outlawing foreign campaign contributions, while at the same time fixing the Democratic Party’s error that kept Joe Biden off the November ballot,” the statement said.
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said after the governor spoke that a “clean” House bill that would change the ballot deadline on a permanent basis also could be considered.
Ohio House Democratic leader Allison Russo said via the social platform X that money from foreign donors is already illegal and the real issue is dark money going to candidates.
“GOP strategy: change the rules when you can’t win,” Russo said. “They’re terrified when citizens use their voice w/ direct democracy, so now they want to completely upend citizens’ ability to fund ballot initiatives. Any talk of “foreign money” is a red herring.”
State Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters accused GOP lawmakers of politicizing the process and disenfranchising Ohioans.
“We must pass the Ohio Anti-Corruption Act, which would require dark money groups to identify their funders, disclose their spending, and strengthen the ban on foreign money,” Walters said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, Republican politicians who hold supermajorities in both chambers at the statehouse must put politics aside and pass a clean bill to put Joe Biden on the ballot,” she continued. “Despite Republicans’ political gamesmanship, we’re confident Joe Biden will be on the Ohio ballot.”
Republican state House Speaker Jason Stephens said lawmakers have language that bans foreign influence from ballot issue campaigns without hurting the rights of citizens.
“We look forward to real solutions that will actually pass both chambers next week and solve problems,” Stephens said in a statement.
And fellow Republican JD Vance, U.S. senator from Ohio, issued a statement saying the calling of a special session is a “reasonable compromise.”
Vance expressed confidence that former President Donald Trump would beat Biden regardless of whether he's on the ballot, but he said “a lot of Trump voters might sit at home if there isn’t a real presidential race, and that will really hurt our down ballot races for the Senate and Congress. We need to play chess.”
The Ohio Republican Party strongly supports DeWine’s decision, chairman Alex M. Triantafilou said.
There was no immediate response by the Biden campaign to a message requesting comment.
Alabama recently changed its law to ensure Biden will appear on fall ballots. The Alabama bill offered accommodations to the president like those made four years ago for then-President Donald Trump.
The last time Ohio lawmakers were ordered back to Columbus in a such a manner was in 2004, under Republican Gov. Bob Taft, to consider campaign finance reform
lol compared to being from missouri i would shout it from the rooftops if i was from ohio.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
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Lawmakers expensed millions in 2023 under new program that doesn’t require receipts By Jacqueline Alemany, Clara Ence Morse and Liz Goodwin June 04, 2024 at 7:43 ET More than 300 House lawmakers were reimbursed at least $5.2 million for food and lodging while on official business in Washington last year under a new, taxpayer-funded program that does not require them to provide receipts. The program, which kicked off last year after a House panel passed it with bipartisan support, was intended to make it easier for lawmakers to cover the cost of maintaining separate homes in D.C. and their home districts. But critics argue that its reliance on the honor system and lack of transparent record-keeping makes it ripe for abuse. The reimbursement scheme’s lack of receipt requirements is a “ridiculous loophole,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the good government group Public Citizen. “Clearly it becomes very difficult to tell whether or not it’s a legitimate payment and whether it’s proper,” Holman added. The program has only a few strict rules: Lawmakers cannot be repaid for principal or interest on their mortgages, they can only get reimbursement for days they’re actually working or flying to D.C., and they can’t ask for more back than their actual expenses. They’re also subject to daily spending caps determined by the General Services Administration. Members are “strongly encouraged,” but not required, to keep records of their expenses, according to guidance issued by the House Committee on Administration.
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Several Pa. House Republicans boo officers who defended Capitol on Jan. 6
Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell were invited to Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives — but several GOP lawmakers booed and some walked out, Democratic lawmakers said.
Two former law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection were jeered by state GOP lawmakers as they visited Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives on Wednesday, according to several Democratic lawmakers present.
Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and former sergeant Aquilino Gonell were introduced on the floor Wednesday as “heroes” by House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D) for having “bravely defended democracy in the United States Capitol against rioters and insurrection on Jan. 6.”
As the two men — both of whom were injured by rioters on Jan. 6 — were introduced, the House floor descended into chaos. According to Democratic lawmakers, several GOP lawmakers hissed and booed, with a number of Republicans walking out of the chamber in protest.
“I heard some hissing and I saw about eight to 10 of my Republican colleagues walk out angrily as they were announced as police officers from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6,” state Rep. Arvind Venkat (D) said in a phone interview Thursday. “I was shocked and appalled,” he added. According to Venkat, the commotion lasted about five minutes. Fewer than 100 lawmakers, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, were present in the chamber before the chaotic scene unfolded, he said.
The Republicans’ loud rejection of the two officers in a keybattleground state underscores how polarizing the legacy of the Jan. 6 insurrection has become between the parties, to the extent that supporting law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol from violent rioters is seen as politically contentious by some lawmakers.
Dunn and Gonell have also been vocal politically — both are touring Pennsylvania this week to campaign for President Biden’s reelection, including stops at Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Earlier this year, Dunn launched an unsuccessful bid to be nominated as a Democrat for a Maryland seat in the U.S. House.
Senior Republicans who responded to requests for comment from The Washington Post did not comment directly on the walkout, but emphasized their support for law enforcement and accused Democratic lawmakers of politicizing the incident.
“I was on the House Floor yesterday and I personally spoke to both of the former officers at the Speaker’s rostrum. I and other members of our caucus also had their pictures taken with the former officers,” House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler said an emailed statement. He characterized the Democratic lawmakers as “antagonizing members and inviting division and discord for their political and campaign purposes.”
George Dunbar, the Republican caucus chair, said in an email that he “did not see who did what on the Floor yesterday, but believe the actions by House Democrats were contrived for political purposes,” adding that he had greeted the two officers and had the “deepest respect” for Capitol police officers “as well as all law enforcement.”
Rep. Jordan A. Harris (D) argued that “regardless of the politics,” both officers deserve respect for putting their lives on the line on Jan. 6.
“Those two brave patriots stood up and protected our Capitol and democracy,” Harris said. “And for that, they deserve our honor and respect.”
Harris noted that it’s not uncommon for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to celebrate Americans who have served the country. Earlier this week, he said, they recognized a National Guard veteran. The Capitol officers, he said, deserved to be greeted with the same respect.
“We talk about backing the blue, but people turned their backs on blue yesterday,” Harris said. “You talk about all the political stuff you want to talk about, [but] those men wore a uniform and wore a badge, and on that day, they were in defense of our democracy and our United States Capitol. And for that, they deserve respect and honor.”
Rep. Mike Schlossberg (D), who was also present, said in an email on Wednesday that while “there were absolutely Republican members who did applaud and stand,” a “majority did not.”
“It was embarrassing and disgraceful,” added Schlossberg, the Democratic caucus chair. At one point, Schlossberg said, the booing and jeering grew so loud “that the Speaker had to raise her voice to be heard over the noise.”
In a statement shared with The Post, Speaker McClinton described the actions as “despicable.”
“These brave former law enforcement officers were disrespected by many Republican members who walked off the House floor, turned their backs and booed the officers. The GOP members’ shameful behavior was unbecoming of our institution for any guest, let alone two of the men responsible for defending our democracy during a dark day in our nation’s history.”
Schlossberg said the reaction of his Republican counterparts was somewhat ironic.
“These brave men were injured protecting elected officials in a government building, and my colleagues — elected officials working in a government building — had the audacity to show disrespect to men who protected people like themselves,” he said.
Gonell was battered during the Capitol riot, and both of his hands were injured as he blocked an attacker from swinging a PVC pipe at an officer who wasn’t wearing a helmet. After Tuesday’s walkout, the Iraq War veteran accused Pennsylvania House Republicans of having “abandoned the truth” and “sided with those who attacked us.”
I don’t know why, but sometimes republicans will still surprise me.
they shouldn't ever surprise you unless they somehow manage to do the right thing. there is absolutely no bottom. they will go lower and lower. think of the stupidest possible decision or outcome of any given situation, and they will go that way.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
But Kennedy cannot count on maintaining his current level of support as the November election nears.
It is pretty common for third-party candidates to look like they have polling momentum in the months before an election, only to come up far short at the ballot box, according to an Associated Press analysis of Gallup data going back to 1980.
That is not a sign that the polls about Kennedy are wrong right now. They just are not predictors of what will happen in the general election.
Studies have shown that people are bad at predicting their future behavior, and voting is months away. And in a year with two highly unpopular candidates in a rematch from 2020, voters may also use their early support for a third-party candidate to express their frustration with the major party choices. In the end, voters may support the candidate for whom they feel their vote can make a difference or they may decide not to vote at all.
The concept of a third party has been popular for a long time.
A poll conducted by Gallup in 1999 found two-thirds of U.S. adults said they favored a third political party that would run candidates for president, Congress and state offices against Republicans and Democrats. (The AP analysis used Gallup data, when available, because Gallup has a long history of high-quality polling in the United States.)
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults have said in Gallup polling since 2013 that the Republican and Democratic parties do “such a poor job representing the American people” that a third major party is needed. In the latest Gallup polling, much of that enthusiasm is carried by independents: 75% say a third party is needed. About 6 in 10 Republicans and slightly fewer than half of Democrats (46%) say an alternative is necessary.
Marjorie Hershey, a professor emeritus in the political science department at Indiana University, said Americans generally like the idea of a third party until specifics emerge, such as that party's policies and nominees.
“It’s a symbolic notion. Do I want more choices? Well, sure. Everybody always wants more choices, more ice cream choices, more fast-food choices,” Hershey said. “But if you start to get down to brass tacks and you talk about, so would it be tacos or burgers, then that’s an entirely different choice, right?”
THIRD-PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES RARELY GET A SUBSTANTIAL SHARE OF THE VOTE
That hypothetical support for third-party candidates often breaks down quickly.
The AP analysis looked at polling for every independent and minor party presidential candidate who received at least 3% of the popular vote nationally going back to the 1980 election.
In multiple elections, including the 1980, 1992, and 2016 presidential races, third-party candidates hit early polling numbers that were much higher than their ultimate vote share. For instance, in polls conducted in May and June 1980, between 21% and 24% of registered voters said they would like to see independent candidate John Anderson, a veteran Republican congressman from Illinois, win when he ran for president against Republican Ronald Reagan and Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. Anderson went on to earn 7% of the popular vote.
Part of the problem is that early polls often look quite different from the actual general election vote.
Voters "don’t know what’s going to happen between now and the election,” said Jeffrey Jones, a senior editor at Gallup. “Things are going to come up in the campaign that could change the way they think.”
Decades after Anderson, polls conducted during the 2016 presidential campaign put support for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, a former New Mexico governor, at between 5% and 12% in polls of registered voters conducted from May to July. That led some people to predict that he could do better than any third-party candidate in decades. Johnson won about 3% of the vote in that election.
Johnson told the AP that he believes his name should have been included in more polls, though he was in surveys used to determine eligibility for debates.
He also contends that independent candidates struggle to match major party candidates in fundraising.
“It’s money, first and foremost. People don’t donate if they don’t think that you have a possibility of winning," Johnson said. "I’m not excluding myself from that same equation. Look, am I going to give money to somebody that I know is going to lose? I’d rather go on a vacation in Kauai,” Johnson said in an interview while driving with his family on a trip in Hawaii.
KENNEDY'S SUPPORT MAY DROP OFF AS THE ELECTION NEARS
The American electoral system makes it hard for third parties to thrive. Still, it is possible to have a significant impact without coming close to winning.
Billionaire businessman Ross Perot is among the most successful modern-day examples. He won 19% of the vote when he ran for president in 1992. But that was substantially lower than his support in earlier polling. In polls conducted from May to July of that year, between 30% and 39% of registered voters said they would vote for Perot.
There are already reasons to believe that at least some of Kennedy’s polling support may be a mirage. (The Kennedy campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)
A CNN poll conducted last summer when he was running for the Democratic nomination found that 2 in 10 Democrats who would consider supporting him said that their support was related to the Kennedy name or his family connections. An additional 17% said they did not know enough about him and wanted to learn more, while only 12% said it was because of support for his views and policies.
“A variable that is so different from all these other people is the Kennedy name,” said Barbara Perry, an expert in presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. “There’s a lot of emotion around him that I would say was not there in the Anderson, Perot, (Ralph) Nader and Johnson cases.”
There also is some evidence that Americans are using support for Kennedy to express frustration with Biden and Trump.
Hershey notes that for many people, presidential elections can feel abstract until a few weeks before it happens, so it is good to take early poll numbers with a grain of salt.
Such polls “don’t necessarily reflect actual political issues,” Hershey said. “They reflect general views about life.”
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Today the Left is threatening the tax-exempt status of churches and charities
that reject woke progressivism. They will soon turn to Christian schools and clubs
with the same totalitarian intent.
The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil
society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms
sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used
to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule,
agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.
Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender
ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot
inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual
liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its
purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product
is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime.
Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should
be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed
as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that
facilitate its spread should be shuttered.
In our schools, the question of parental authority over their children’s education
is a simple one: Schools serve parents, not the other way around. That is, of course,
the best argument for universal school choice—a goal all conservatives and conservative Presidents must pursue. But even before we achieve that long-term goal,
parents’ rights as their children’s primary educators should be non-negotiable in
American schools. States, cities and counties, school boards, union bosses, principals, and teachers who disagree should be immediately cut off from federal funds.
The noxious tenets of “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” should be
excised from curricula in every public school in the country. These theories poison
our children, who are being taught on the one hand to affirm that the color of their
skin fundamentally determines their identity and even their moral status while
on the other they are taught to deny the very creatureliness that inheres in being
human and consists in accepting the givenness of our nature as men or women.
Do these Christian Nationalists have your attention yet? This is your future.
Ultimately, the Left does not believe that all men are created equal—they think
they are special. They certainly don’t think all people have an unalienable right to
pursue the good life. They think only they themselves have such a right along with
a moral responsibility to make decisions for everyone else. They don’t think any
citizen, state, business, church, or charity should be allowed any freedom until
they first bend the knee.
This book, this agenda, the entire Project 2025 is a plan to unite the conservative
movement and the American people against elite rule and woke culture warriors.
Our movement has not been united in recent years, and our country has paid
the price. In the past decade, though, the breakdown of the family, the rise of
China, the Great Awokening, Big Tech’s abuses, and the erosion of constitutional
accountability in Washington have rendered these divisions not just inconvenient
but politically suicidal. Every hour the Left directs federal policy and elite institutions, our sovereignty, our Constitution, our families, and our freedom are a step
closer to disappearing.
Conservatives have just two years and one shot to get this right. With enemies
at home and abroad, there is no margin for error. Time is running short. If we fail,
the fight for the very idea of America may be lost.
"The Left's steady stream of insanity appears to be never-ending?" Have they seen their candidate without a teleprompter? Guess from whence the following came?
Just two years after the death of the last surviving Constitutional Convention
delegate, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln warned that the greatest threat to
America would come not from without, but from within. This is evident today:
Whether it be mask and vaccine mandates, school and business closures, efforts
to keep Americans from driving gas cars or using gas stoves, or efforts to defund
the police, indoctrinate schoolchildren, alter beloved books, abridge free speech,
undermine the colorblind ideal, or deny the biological reality that there are only
two sexes, the Left’s steady stream of insanity appears to be never-ending. The
next Administration must stand up for American ideals, American families, and
American culture—all things in which, thankfully, most Americans still believe.
Here's what they believe and believe them when they tell you what they believe:
Many of these laws and regulations governing a largely underworked, overcompensated, and unaccountable federal civilian workforce are so irrational that
they would be comical in a less important context. This is true whether it comes to
evaluating employees’ performance or hiring new employees. Only in the federal
government could an applicant in the hiring process be sent to the front of the
line because of a “history of drug addiction” or “alcoholism,” or due to “morbid
obesity,” “irritable bowel syndrome,” or a “psychiatric disorder.” The next Administration should insist that the federal government’s hiring, evaluation, retention,
and compensation practices benefit taxpayers, rather than benefiting the lowest
rung of the federal workforce.
Comments
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/15/politics/mitt-romney-pardon-trump-biden/index.html
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Abbott grants Daniel Perry pardon in murder of Black Lives Matter protester
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is pardoning Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter march, on Thursday after a review board recommended he be released from prison.
“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” he said in a statement. “I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.”
Abbott has long vowed to pardon Perry, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year. After Perry’s conviction, unsealed court records revealed that he regularly shared racist memes and threatening content in private messages and social media posts, including descriptions of killing protesters and minorities.
Perry was convicted of murder in the death of 28-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran Garrett Foster, who was legally armed with an AK-47 rifle, during a 2020 confrontation in downtown Austin at a racial justice demonstration. At the time, his attorneys vowed to appeal.
In a statement, Perry’s attorney, Doug O’Connell, said the board took time to review evidence and interview witnesses “to get to the truth” of the encounter between Foster and Perry that night in Austin in 2020. The decision, he said, corrects “the courtroom travesty” that left his client behind bars for 372 days and resulted in the end of Perry’s military career.
“He is thrilled and elated to be free,” O’Connell wrote. “He wishes that this tragic event never happened and wishes he never had to defend himself against Mr. Foster’s unlawful actions.”
The governor in his declaration criticized Travis County District Attorney José Garza’s handling of the case. He resurfaced allegations that arose during the trial, accusing the prosecutor of directing the lead detective in the case to withhold evidence from the grand jury andaccusing him of misconduct and bias.
“Rather than upholding the self-defense rights of citizens,” Abbott wrote, Garza “has prioritized ‘reducing access to guns’ that citizens may use to lawfully defend themselves”
Travis County Judge Clifford Brown reviewed those accusations during the trial phase of the case when defense attorneys filed a motion for a mistrial. He ultimately denied the motion.
Garza strongly condemned the pardon, saying the state board and governor are sending a message that some lives matter and others do not under the law in Texas.
“The Board and the Governor have put their politics over justice and made a mockery of our legal system,” the district attorney said in a statement. “They should be ashamed of themselves.”
Garza, a Democrat, has become the target of conservatives in the state and in his more left-leaning county after the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law limiting the discretion of elected district attorneys to prosecute certain offenses. The 2023 law signed by the governor allows private citizens to file petitions against district attorneys, specifically those who may refuse to prosecute criminal offenses such as a low-level drug or abortion-related cases.
A Travis County resident recently filed a petition to the court to remove Garza from office for official misconduct and it is under review.
“The petition is meritless and we are confident it will ultimately be dismissed,” Garza said.
The Perry case attracted attention from conservative news personalities who called on Abbott to act, drawing comparisons between Perry’s self-defense claims and Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager acquitted after fatally shooting two men and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020 amid unrest after a police shooting.
Perry was driving for a ride-share service in July 2020 when he sped his car onto a street in Austin that was crowded with protesters and got into a confrontation with Foster, who had the rifle strapped to his chest. Prosecutors argued Perry could have driven away. But he fatally shot Foster.
In its statement Thursday, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles said it had reached its decision in the case after conducting a “meticulous review” of police reports, court records and witness statements in the case. Abbott appointed all the members serving on the board composed of legal professionals. The governor urged them to conduct an expedited review of Perry’s case a day after his conviction, and weeks before his sentencing. Then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson pressured him to do so.
The board’s highly unorthodox review, experts said, did not commence until after the criminal case was over. But they did not wait — as is normally the case — for the appellate process to play out.
“After a thorough examination of the amassed information, the parole board reached a decision,” the panel said in a statement. “The Board voted unanimously to recommend a full pardon and restoration of firearm rights.”
The behavior surprised longtime observers.
“The parole board in Texas is not supposed to be a judicial body. They don’t engage in re-litigating the facts of the case. That’s not the board’s job and never has been,” said attorney Gary Cohen, who has represented offenders before the board for four decades. “What the board did and the governor did, is a complete perversion of justice and it has dire and drastic consequences for public confidence and safety.”
Clemency is ordinarily granted in cases where offenders have exhausted their appeals and later petition the board, demonstrating some degree of rehabilitation. In this case, the governor took the unprecedented step of petitioning on Perry’s behalf, Cohen said.
It is not the first time the state board has run into political quagmires.
After his death, the pardon and parole board recommended Abbott pardon George Floyd’s 2004 drug conviction, which involved a police officer later charged with crimes related to falsifying records. The governor did nothing and enough pressure built that the board members eventually rescinded their recommendation.
Foster’s family was devastated by the board’s decision. Sheila Foster initially pursued a lawsuit against Perry in her son’s slaying. But after he was convicted, Foster felt he had been held sufficiently accountable and looked to dismiss it, her attorney Quentin Brogdon said.
“We both hoped the governor of Texas would not follow through on his threats,” he said. “Unfortunately, he has turned the rule of law on its head.”
Foster’s options for reviving her lawsuit are limited but she is exploring them, Brogdon said.
“But today she is simply at a loss for words and extremely disappointed in our system of justice,” her attorney said.
Foster’s girlfriend, Whitney Mitchell, who was with him at the time of his death, said a jury rightly convicted Perry as a murderer and his text messages were proof enough for them that he had planned to kill demonstrators that night.
“With this pardon, the Governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan and US Air Force veteran, and impugned that jury’s just verdict,” Mitchell said in a statement through her attorney. “He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his — and different from those in power — can be killed in this State with impunity.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/abbott-daniel-perry-blm-protester/
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
It's like the 1950s all over again. Shake my freakin' head, what a disaster.
But I’m not really that optimistic. History tells us that repressive movements enabled by cowards and hucksters are just as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the legitimately hateful. You can wreck a country with cosplaying careerists just as easily as you can with bloodthirsty revolutionaries.
Maybe that’s the right elegy for our times.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
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HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana's attorney general told supporters he skirted the state’s campaign finance laws by inviting another Republican to run against him as a token candidate in next month's primary so he could raise more money for the November general election, according to a recording from a fundraising event.
“I do technically have a primary," Attorney General Austin Knudsen said last week when asked at the event who was running against him. “However, he is a young man who I asked to run against me because our campaign laws are ridiculous."
Knudsen separately faces dozens of professional misconduct allegations from the state's office of attorney discipline as he seeks a second term. He made the comments about his primary opponent during the fundraiser on May 11 in Dillon, Montana, according to the recording obtained by the Daily Montanan, which is part of the nonprofit States Newsroom organization.
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In the recording, Knudsen is heard saying that Logan Olson “filed to run against me simply because under our current campaign finance laws in Montana, it allows me to raise more money. So, he supports me and he’s going to vote for me.”
Knudsen’s senior campaign adviser Jake Eaton declined to comment on the recording.
Olson, a county attorney in rural northeastern Montana, denied being recruited by Knudsen. Campaign finance records indicate his filing fee was paid by a longtime Republican operative who is also a Knudsen donor.
The state’s campaign finance watchdog agency, the Commissioner of Political Practices, is investigating complaints filed by the executive director of the Montana Democratic Party that allege an agreement between Knudsen and Olson.
Under state law, a person cannot pay or “promise valuable consideration” to another person to induce them to be a candidate, or to withdraw as a candidate.
Democrat Sheila Hogan's complaints say Knudsen started raising donations exceeding the $790-per person allowed without a primary opponent long before Olson filed on March 11 — the final day for candidate filing.
“Olson is not a legitimate, good faith candidate for Attorney General,” both complaints state.
Eaton, who called the complaint against Knudsen frivolous, said it was “common practice for candidates to accept primary and general contributions and then return the money if there is no contested primary."
He suggested Democratic Attorney General candidate Ben Alke, a Bozeman attorney, was also accepting more money than what is allowed from individual donors.
However, a search of Alke's campaign finance reports shows only contributions to his primary campaign.
Knudsen and Olson have until May 23 to respond to the complaints, although Olson has requested an extension, commissioner Chris Gallus said Friday.
Olson has not raised or spent any money in the race, according to a report filed by his treasurer on Friday.
His April campaign finance report listed a debt of more than $1,500 to Standard Consulting of Helena for reimbursement of his filing fee.
“I did pay Logan’s filing fee and helped him file for office,” Chuck Denowh, a Republican operative and owner of Standard Consulting, said in an email Friday. “I did so because he asked me to.”
Denowh has donated $1,580 to Knudsen -- $790 each for the primary and general elections.
Alke said the professional misconduct allegations and other actions by Knudsen are why he's running for attorney general.
Knudsen is facing 41 counts of professional misconduct on allegations his office tried to undermine the Montana Supreme Court while defending a challenge to a state law about judicial nominations. The Commission on Practice is scheduled to hear the case in mid-July and recommend whether Knudsen should be punished.
Separately, in early 2021 Knudsen ordered the Lewis and Clark County attorney to dismiss concealed carry weapons charges against a man who allegedly threatened a restaurant manager trying to enforce the state's pandemic mask mandate. Knudsen's office later pleaded the case down to disorderly conduct.
In October 2021, a Helena hospital said three unspecified public officials threatened doctors after they refused to treat a COVID-19 patient with ivermectin, a drug for parasites that is not federally approved for the virus. Knudsen’s office later confirmed that he participated in a conference call with hospital executives and that he sent a Montana Highway Patrol trooper to the hospital to talk with the patient’s family after they claimed mistreatment — something the hospital denied.
“This sort of conduct from the chief legal officer and law enforcement officer of the state of Montana is inappropriate and I hope people are paying attention because this is just one of several issues with Austin Knudsen,” Alke said Thursday.
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By Hannah Allam
May 20, 2024 at 12:29 ET
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Locals prefer not to talk about the hate that took root here a generation ago, when the Aryan Nations and other militants built a white supremacist paradise among the tall pines and crystal lakes of North Idaho.
Community activists, backed by national civil rights groups, bankrupted the neo-Nazis in court and eventually forced them to move, a hard-fought triumph memorialized in scenes from 2001 of a backhoe smashing through a giant swastika at the former Aryan compound just outside of Coeur d’Alene, the biggest city in this part of the state.
For much of the two decades since, civic leaders have focused on moving beyond the image of North Idaho as a white-power fiefdom. They steered attention instead to emerald golf courses and gleaming lakeside resorts where celebrities such as Kim Kardashian sip huckleberry cocktails.
Now, however, North Idaho residents are confronting that history head-on as a new movement builds against far-right extremism.
This time, activists say, the threat is no longer on the fringes of society, dressed in Nazi garb at a hideout in the woods. Instead, they see it in the leadership of the local Republican Party, which has mirrored the lurch to the right of the national conservative movement during the Trump era on matters of race, religion and sexuality. The bigotry of the past, they say, now has mainstream political cover.
In this ruby-red state, the pushback is being led from within the party. A group of disaffected, self-described “traditional” Republicans has spent the past two years planning to wrest back control from leaders who they accuse of steering the local GOP toward extremism, a charge the officials vehemently deny. A crucial measure of the challengers’ efforts comes Tuesday, Idaho’s primary day.
If the breakaway group can succeed, it would make North Idaho an unlikely setting for something rare: A meaningful internal rebellion against the forces that have driven the Republican Party toward open embraces of far-right rhetoric and policies since Donald Trump first claimed the GOP presidential nomination eight years ago.
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Key coverage
A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrinating kids. Then she read the curriculum.
Courtney Gore, a Granbury ISD school board member, has disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on. Her defiance has brought her backlash.
This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. Also, sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Weeks after winning a school board seat in her deeply red Texas county, Courtney Gore immersed herself in the district’s curriculum, spending her nights and weekends poring over hundreds of pages of lesson plans that she had fanned out on the coffee table in her living room and even across her bed. She was searching for evidence of the sweeping national movement she had warned on the campaign trail was indoctrinating schoolchildren.
Gore, the co-host of a far-right online talk show, had promised that she would be a strong Republican voice on the nonpartisan school board. Citing “small town, conservative Christian values,” she pledged to inspect educational materials for inappropriate messages about sexuality and race and remove them from every campus in the 7,700-student Granbury Independent School District, an hour southwest of Fort Worth. “Over the years our American Education System has been hijacked by Leftists looking to indoctrinate our kids into the ‘progressive’ way of thinking, and yes, they’ve tried to do this in Granbury ISD,” she wrote in a September 2021 Facebook post, two months before the election. “I cannot sit by and watch their twisted worldview infiltrate Granbury ISD.”
But after taking office and examining hundreds of pages of curriculum, Gore was shocked by what she found — and didn’t find.
The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism. She’d examined curriculum related to social-emotional learning, which has come under attack by Christian conservatives who say it encourages children to question gender roles and prioritizes feelings over biblical teachings. Instead, Gore found the materials taught children “how to be a good friend, a good human.”
continues.....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7PnX4bK2mQ/?igsh=YmdjaThxbHkxMmtq
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https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/22/politics/nikki-haley-donald-trump/index.html
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The quote I heard from her included some blather about the debt under Biden which is laughable given her comments about the debt under tRump.
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
She did better than any R against Trump and she has a decent core of voters who cast ballots for her even after she dropped out. (Those could have been anti-Trump votes as well, though.) With him out of the way in '28, she could just have enough backing to make a run as the Republican nominee.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that he is calling a rare special session of the General Assembly next week to pass legislation ensuring that President Joe Biden is on the state's 2024 ballot.
The special session was called for Tuesday.
“Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, the sitting President of the United States, on the ballot this fall. Failing to do so is simply unacceptable. This is ridiculous. This is (an) absurd situation,” DeWine said.
The question of whether Biden will appear on the ballot has become entangled in a partisan legislative fight to keep foreign money out of state ballot campaigns, a year after cash tied to a Swiss billionaire boosted a successful effort to enshrine abortion rights in the solidly red state’s constitution.
The Democratic National Convention, where Biden is to be formally nominated, falls after Ohio’s ballot deadline of Aug. 7. The convention will be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
JOE BIDEN
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White House pushes tech industry to shut down market for sexually abusive AI deepfakes
Since Ohio changed its certification deadline from 60 to 90 days ahead of the general election, state lawmakers have had to adjust the requirement twice, in 2012 and 2020, to accommodate candidates of both parties. Each change was only temporary.
This year lawmakers were unable to come up with a fix by the May 9 cutoff set by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
DeWine said he spoke to LaRose on Thursday and he said we’re “up against a wall.” LaRose told him next Wednesday is the drop-dead deadline.
“I’ve waited. I’ve been patient. And my patience has run out,” DeWine said.
DeWine said his proclamation will allow for passing a Senate version of the bill that also bans foreign nationals from contributing to Ohio ballot measures.
The proposal has been described as a “poison pill” in the fractured Ohio House, where Republicans rely on Democratic votes for pass some legislation.
In a statement, a spokesman for Senate President Matt Huffman encouraged House leadership to allow a vote on House Bill 114.
“We agree with the Governor. It is time to protect Ohio’s elections by outlawing foreign campaign contributions, while at the same time fixing the Democratic Party’s error that kept Joe Biden off the November ballot,” the statement said.
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said after the governor spoke that a “clean” House bill that would change the ballot deadline on a permanent basis also could be considered.
Ohio House Democratic leader Allison Russo said via the social platform X that money from foreign donors is already illegal and the real issue is dark money going to candidates.
“GOP strategy: change the rules when you can’t win,” Russo said. “They’re terrified when citizens use their voice w/ direct democracy, so now they want to completely upend citizens’ ability to fund ballot initiatives. Any talk of “foreign money” is a red herring.”
State Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters accused GOP lawmakers of politicizing the process and disenfranchising Ohioans.
“We must pass the Ohio Anti-Corruption Act, which would require dark money groups to identify their funders, disclose their spending, and strengthen the ban on foreign money,” Walters said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, Republican politicians who hold supermajorities in both chambers at the statehouse must put politics aside and pass a clean bill to put Joe Biden on the ballot,” she continued. “Despite Republicans’ political gamesmanship, we’re confident Joe Biden will be on the Ohio ballot.”
Republican state House Speaker Jason Stephens said lawmakers have language that bans foreign influence from ballot issue campaigns without hurting the rights of citizens.
“We look forward to real solutions that will actually pass both chambers next week and solve problems,” Stephens said in a statement.
And fellow Republican JD Vance, U.S. senator from Ohio, issued a statement saying the calling of a special session is a “reasonable compromise.”
Vance expressed confidence that former President Donald Trump would beat Biden regardless of whether he's on the ballot, but he said “a lot of Trump voters might sit at home if there isn’t a real presidential race, and that will really hurt our down ballot races for the Senate and Congress. We need to play chess.”
The Ohio Republican Party strongly supports DeWine’s decision, chairman Alex M. Triantafilou said.
There was no immediate response by the Biden campaign to a message requesting comment.
Alabama recently changed its law to ensure Biden will appear on fall ballots. The Alabama bill offered accommodations to the president like those made four years ago for then-President Donald Trump.
The last time Ohio lawmakers were ordered back to Columbus in a such a manner was in 2004, under Republican Gov. Bob Taft, to consider campaign finance reform
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
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memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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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
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
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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
By Jacqueline Alemany, Clara Ence Morse and Liz Goodwin
June 04, 2024 at 7:43 ET
More than 300 House lawmakers were reimbursed at least $5.2 million for food and lodging while on official business in Washington last year under a new, taxpayer-funded program that does not require them to provide receipts.
The program, which kicked off last year after a House panel passed it with bipartisan support, was intended to make it easier for lawmakers to cover the cost of maintaining separate homes in D.C. and their home districts. But critics argue that its reliance on the honor system and lack of transparent record-keeping makes it ripe for abuse.
The reimbursement scheme’s lack of receipt requirements is a “ridiculous loophole,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the good government group Public Citizen. “Clearly it becomes very difficult to tell whether or not it’s a legitimate payment and whether it’s proper,” Holman added.
The program has only a few strict rules: Lawmakers cannot be repaid for principal or interest on their mortgages, they can only get reimbursement for days they’re actually working or flying to D.C., and they can’t ask for more back than their actual expenses. They’re also subject to daily spending caps determined by the General Services Administration. Members are “strongly encouraged,” but not required, to keep records of their expenses, according to guidance issued by the House Committee on Administration.
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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Several Pa. House Republicans boo officers who defended Capitol on Jan. 6
Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell were invited to Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives — but several GOP lawmakers booed and some walked out, Democratic lawmakers said.
Two former law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection were jeered by state GOP lawmakers as they visited Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives on Wednesday, according to several Democratic lawmakers present.
Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and former sergeant Aquilino Gonell were introduced on the floor Wednesday as “heroes” by House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D) for having “bravely defended democracy in the United States Capitol against rioters and insurrection on Jan. 6.”
As the two men — both of whom were injured by rioters on Jan. 6 — were introduced, the House floor descended into chaos. According to Democratic lawmakers, several GOP lawmakers hissed and booed, with a number of Republicans walking out of the chamber in protest.
“I heard some hissing and I saw about eight to 10 of my Republican colleagues walk out angrily as they were announced as police officers from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6,” state Rep. Arvind Venkat (D) said in a phone interview Thursday. “I was shocked and appalled,” he added. According to Venkat, the commotion lasted about five minutes. Fewer than 100 lawmakers, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, were present in the chamber before the chaotic scene unfolded, he said.
The Pennsylvania House has 203 members — 102 Democrats and 101 Republicans.
The Republicans’ loud rejection of the two officers in a keybattleground state underscores how polarizing the legacy of the Jan. 6 insurrection has become between the parties, to the extent that supporting law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol from violent rioters is seen as politically contentious by some lawmakers.
Dunn and Gonell have also been vocal politically — both are touring Pennsylvania this week to campaign for President Biden’s reelection, including stops at Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Earlier this year, Dunn launched an unsuccessful bid to be nominated as a Democrat for a Maryland seat in the U.S. House.
Senior Republicans who responded to requests for comment from The Washington Post did not comment directly on the walkout, but emphasized their support for law enforcement and accused Democratic lawmakers of politicizing the incident.
“I was on the House Floor yesterday and I personally spoke to both of the former officers at the Speaker’s rostrum. I and other members of our caucus also had their pictures taken with the former officers,” House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler said an emailed statement. He characterized the Democratic lawmakers as “antagonizing members and inviting division and discord for their political and campaign purposes.”
George Dunbar, the Republican caucus chair, said in an email that he “did not see who did what on the Floor yesterday, but believe the actions by House Democrats were contrived for political purposes,” adding that he had greeted the two officers and had the “deepest respect” for Capitol police officers “as well as all law enforcement.”
Rep. Jordan A. Harris (D) argued that “regardless of the politics,” both officers deserve respect for putting their lives on the line on Jan. 6.
“Those two brave patriots stood up and protected our Capitol and democracy,” Harris said. “And for that, they deserve our honor and respect.”
Harris noted that it’s not uncommon for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to celebrate Americans who have served the country. Earlier this week, he said, they recognized a National Guard veteran. The Capitol officers, he said, deserved to be greeted with the same respect.
“We talk about backing the blue, but people turned their backs on blue yesterday,” Harris said. “You talk about all the political stuff you want to talk about, [but] those men wore a uniform and wore a badge, and on that day, they were in defense of our democracy and our United States Capitol. And for that, they deserve respect and honor.”
Rep. Mike Schlossberg (D), who was also present, said in an email on Wednesday that while “there were absolutely Republican members who did applaud and stand,” a “majority did not.”
“It was embarrassing and disgraceful,” added Schlossberg, the Democratic caucus chair. At one point, Schlossberg said, the booing and jeering grew so loud “that the Speaker had to raise her voice to be heard over the noise.”
In a statement shared with The Post, Speaker McClinton described the actions as “despicable.”
“These brave former law enforcement officers were disrespected by many Republican members who walked off the House floor, turned their backs and booed the officers. The GOP members’ shameful behavior was unbecoming of our institution for any guest, let alone two of the men responsible for defending our democracy during a dark day in our nation’s history.”
Schlossberg said the reaction of his Republican counterparts was somewhat ironic.
“These brave men were injured protecting elected officials in a government building, and my colleagues — elected officials working in a government building — had the audacity to show disrespect to men who protected people like themselves,” he said.
Dunn was pepper-sprayed and injured in hand-to-hand combatwhile defending the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. He has since launched a PAC to support anti-Trump candidates. “This is about democracy versus dictatorship,” he said at a campaign stop in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
Gonell was battered during the Capitol riot, and both of his hands were injured as he blocked an attacker from swinging a PVC pipe at an officer who wasn’t wearing a helmet. After Tuesday’s walkout, the Iraq War veteran accused Pennsylvania House Republicans of having “abandoned the truth” and “sided with those who attacked us.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/06/pennsylvania-house-republicans-capitol-walkout/
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has reached 15% or more in three approved national polls. One more, and he will have met one of CNN's benchmarks to qualify for the debate June 27 with Democratic President Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
But Kennedy cannot count on maintaining his current level of support as the November election nears.
It is pretty common for third-party candidates to look like they have polling momentum in the months before an election, only to come up far short at the ballot box, according to an Associated Press analysis of Gallup data going back to 1980.
That is not a sign that the polls about Kennedy are wrong right now. They just are not predictors of what will happen in the general election.
Studies have shown that people are bad at predicting their future behavior, and voting is months away. And in a year with two highly unpopular candidates in a rematch from 2020, voters may also use their early support for a third-party candidate to express their frustration with the major party choices. In the end, voters may support the candidate for whom they feel their vote can make a difference or they may decide not to vote at all.
POLITICS
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Hunter Biden's family weathers a public and expansive airing in federal court of his drug addiction
Biden honors US war dead with a cemetery visit ending a French trip that served as a rebuke to Trump
AMERICANS WANT A THIRD PARTY, IN THEORY
The concept of a third party has been popular for a long time.
A poll conducted by Gallup in 1999 found two-thirds of U.S. adults said they favored a third political party that would run candidates for president, Congress and state offices against Republicans and Democrats. (The AP analysis used Gallup data, when available, because Gallup has a long history of high-quality polling in the United States.)
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults have said in Gallup polling since 2013 that the Republican and Democratic parties do “such a poor job representing the American people” that a third major party is needed. In the latest Gallup polling, much of that enthusiasm is carried by independents: 75% say a third party is needed. About 6 in 10 Republicans and slightly fewer than half of Democrats (46%) say an alternative is necessary.
Marjorie Hershey, a professor emeritus in the political science department at Indiana University, said Americans generally like the idea of a third party until specifics emerge, such as that party's policies and nominees.
“It’s a symbolic notion. Do I want more choices? Well, sure. Everybody always wants more choices, more ice cream choices, more fast-food choices,” Hershey said. “But if you start to get down to brass tacks and you talk about, so would it be tacos or burgers, then that’s an entirely different choice, right?”
THIRD-PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES RARELY GET A SUBSTANTIAL SHARE OF THE VOTE
That hypothetical support for third-party candidates often breaks down quickly.
The AP analysis looked at polling for every independent and minor party presidential candidate who received at least 3% of the popular vote nationally going back to the 1980 election.
In multiple elections, including the 1980, 1992, and 2016 presidential races, third-party candidates hit early polling numbers that were much higher than their ultimate vote share. For instance, in polls conducted in May and June 1980, between 21% and 24% of registered voters said they would like to see independent candidate John Anderson, a veteran Republican congressman from Illinois, win when he ran for president against Republican Ronald Reagan and Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. Anderson went on to earn 7% of the popular vote.
Part of the problem is that early polls often look quite different from the actual general election vote.
Voters "don’t know what’s going to happen between now and the election,” said Jeffrey Jones, a senior editor at Gallup. “Things are going to come up in the campaign that could change the way they think.”
Decades after Anderson, polls conducted during the 2016 presidential campaign put support for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, a former New Mexico governor, at between 5% and 12% in polls of registered voters conducted from May to July. That led some people to predict that he could do better than any third-party candidate in decades. Johnson won about 3% of the vote in that election.
Johnson told the AP that he believes his name should have been included in more polls, though he was in surveys used to determine eligibility for debates.
He also contends that independent candidates struggle to match major party candidates in fundraising.
“It’s money, first and foremost. People don’t donate if they don’t think that you have a possibility of winning," Johnson said. "I’m not excluding myself from that same equation. Look, am I going to give money to somebody that I know is going to lose? I’d rather go on a vacation in Kauai,” Johnson said in an interview while driving with his family on a trip in Hawaii.
KENNEDY'S SUPPORT MAY DROP OFF AS THE ELECTION NEARS
The American electoral system makes it hard for third parties to thrive. Still, it is possible to have a significant impact without coming close to winning.
Billionaire businessman Ross Perot is among the most successful modern-day examples. He won 19% of the vote when he ran for president in 1992. But that was substantially lower than his support in earlier polling. In polls conducted from May to July of that year, between 30% and 39% of registered voters said they would vote for Perot.
There are already reasons to believe that at least some of Kennedy’s polling support may be a mirage. (The Kennedy campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)
A CNN poll conducted last summer when he was running for the Democratic nomination found that 2 in 10 Democrats who would consider supporting him said that their support was related to the Kennedy name or his family connections. An additional 17% said they did not know enough about him and wanted to learn more, while only 12% said it was because of support for his views and policies.
“A variable that is so different from all these other people is the Kennedy name,” said Barbara Perry, an expert in presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. “There’s a lot of emotion around him that I would say was not there in the Anderson, Perot, (Ralph) Nader and Johnson cases.”
There also is some evidence that Americans are using support for Kennedy to express frustration with Biden and Trump.
Hershey notes that for many people, presidential elections can feel abstract until a few weeks before it happens, so it is good to take early poll numbers with a grain of salt.
Such polls “don’t necessarily reflect actual political issues,” Hershey said. “They reflect general views about 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
Today the Left is threatening the tax-exempt status of churches and charities that reject woke progressivism. They will soon turn to Christian schools and clubs with the same totalitarian intent.
The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.
Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.
In our schools, the question of parental authority over their children’s education is a simple one: Schools serve parents, not the other way around. That is, of course, the best argument for universal school choice—a goal all conservatives and conservative Presidents must pursue. But even before we achieve that long-term goal, parents’ rights as their children’s primary educators should be non-negotiable in American schools. States, cities and counties, school boards, union bosses, principals, and teachers who disagree should be immediately cut off from federal funds.
The noxious tenets of “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country. These theories poison our children, who are being taught on the one hand to affirm that the color of their skin fundamentally determines their identity and even their moral status while on the other they are taught to deny the very creatureliness that inheres in being human and consists in accepting the givenness of our nature as men or women.
Do these Christian Nationalists have your attention yet? This is your future.
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BEST EFFORT
Ultimately, the Left does not believe that all men are created equal—they think they are special. They certainly don’t think all people have an unalienable right to pursue the good life. They think only they themselves have such a right along with a moral responsibility to make decisions for everyone else. They don’t think any citizen, state, business, church, or charity should be allowed any freedom until they first bend the knee.
This book, this agenda, the entire Project 2025 is a plan to unite the conservative movement and the American people against elite rule and woke culture warriors. Our movement has not been united in recent years, and our country has paid the price. In the past decade, though, the breakdown of the family, the rise of China, the Great Awokening, Big Tech’s abuses, and the erosion of constitutional accountability in Washington have rendered these divisions not just inconvenient but politically suicidal. Every hour the Left directs federal policy and elite institutions, our sovereignty, our Constitution, our families, and our freedom are a step closer to disappearing.
Conservatives have just two years and one shot to get this right. With enemies at home and abroad, there is no margin for error. Time is running short. If we fail, the fight for the very idea of America may be lost.
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Just two years after the death of the last surviving Constitutional Convention delegate, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln warned that the greatest threat to America would come not from without, but from within. This is evident today: Whether it be mask and vaccine mandates, school and business closures, efforts to keep Americans from driving gas cars or using gas stoves, or efforts to defund the police, indoctrinate schoolchildren, alter beloved books, abridge free speech, undermine the colorblind ideal, or deny the biological reality that there are only two sexes, the Left’s steady stream of insanity appears to be never-ending. The next Administration must stand up for American ideals, American families, and American culture—all things in which, thankfully, most Americans still believe.
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Many of these laws and regulations governing a largely underworked, overcompensated, and unaccountable federal civilian workforce are so irrational that they would be comical in a less important context. This is true whether it comes to evaluating employees’ performance or hiring new employees. Only in the federal government could an applicant in the hiring process be sent to the front of the line because of a “history of drug addiction” or “alcoholism,” or due to “morbid obesity,” “irritable bowel syndrome,” or a “psychiatric disorder.” The next Administration should insist that the federal government’s hiring, evaluation, retention, and compensation practices benefit taxpayers, rather than benefiting the lowest rung of the federal workforce.
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