Posts Made By: David Cotterell

Truth.

Davis, Moscheck, Brown, Lacey, Shaffer, Rachal, Kaufman, McFarland, Clark, Carroll, Cotterell.  Sorry, I may have missed a very infrequent poster or two.... Add yourself to the list if you feel abandoned...

We are just 11 people who actually post here. There may be lurkers but I doubt it....

What are we accomplishing?  No one has had an Epiphany yet, in either political direction.  No one of any importance whatsoever takes note of what we say....

And, yet, here we are... 

Weird, eh?

Dave

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If I may....  I Googled the question, "how do voter ID laws discriminate against Black voters?"

First thing that popped up was this article...https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/how-voter-id-laws-discriminate-study/517218/

and this one: https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2016/discriminatory-voter-id-laws

which includes these paragraphs which seem to answer Richard's questions very well.

"Now that 34 states have passed some form of voter-ID legislation, it’s become clear that voters are not equally able to obtain ID cards. A Brennan Center study revealed that many eligible voters live far from ID-issuing offices and don’t have access to a car or other transportation options. Beyond the challenge of merely getting to such an office, millions of these voters are poor and have trouble paying the fees that come with acquiring IDs."

"Eric Holder, the Attorney General at the time, called Texas’s 2011 voter ID law a “poll tax" (harkening back to the Jim CrowOpens a new window era) because it essentially forced ID-less citizens to buy one for the sole purpose of voting. And while most white voters in Texas already have a valid form of ID, large numbers of minorities—including 25% of African-Americans—do not. Voter ID requirements regularly disenfranchise students, racial and ethnic minorities, low-income citizens, and the elderly. A federal appeals court recently struck down North Carolina’s voting law, saying that it targeted African Americans with “almost surgical precision.” There are countless other examples of bias and discrimination in our election laws and practices."

Seems to be a very clear description of the problem.  

Dave

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a better 2023 from Canuckleheadstan. 

Clearly they need to think outside the box to solve this.

I have an idea.

They should nominate Richard Davis.  

Wiki seems conflicted on this possibility:

"The Constitution does not require the speaker to be an incumbent member of the House of Representatives, however under Rule 1 Clause 8 of Manual Sec 26 of the House of Representatives, stipulates. "the Speaker pro tempore must be a Member of the House"

So, maybe?

Dave

Am I right?  A 'quorum' of 2 can initiate an 'impeachment' or removal-by-any-name of  
McCarthy.  Any time they feel like it?  Any time some legislation comes up that they don't like? 

Gates, Boebert, Greene can control the direction of the House with the threat of removal..

This doesn't bode well.

Dave

This is the call for the death of the American middle class.  And I see the same thinking up here in Canada from our Conservative Party at both the provincial and federal levels.  See also, the UK, Europe, etc., wherever 'populist conservative' parties are active.  

— “We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.
— “We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.
— “We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.
— “We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.
— “We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.
— “We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service.
— “We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.
— “We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.
— “As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.
— “We support repeal of all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.
— “We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.
— “We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.
— “We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.
— “We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
— “We support abolition of the Department of Energy.
— “We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation.
— “We demand the return of America’s railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system.
— “We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called ‘self-protection’ equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.
— “We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration.
— “We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration.
— “We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.
— “We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.
— “We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households.
— “We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
— “We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
— “We support the repeal of all state usury laws.”


This is scary beyond belief.  

Dave

Not all, admittedly.  

Tell me that these policies, selected from the larger Koch laundry list I first posted, are not goals, short term or long, of the Republican Party of today (and the CPC in Canada).   Tell me that there aren't active political struggles  by the R/CPC ongoing that have the end game of  doing just these things, word for word. 

— “We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission. See: Citizens United.  They actively want big money to be able to control the electoral results.

— “We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.
— “We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.  The Conservative movement has been trying to do these exact two things for decades.  They HATE government medical programs.


--"repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.  The battle against "Entitlement" is a cornerstone of modern conservative fiscal policy.  

“We support repeal of all laws which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.  Right to work policies which are just union-busting initiatives and the strong fight against raising the minimum wage are everyday challenges to labour which R's try to enact on an ongoing basis. 

“We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended."   Defunding public schools and Universities, setting up Charter Schools, the fight against the teaching of CRT in Universities.  Happening every day.  

“We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.”   Or, at the very least, gutting the rules and/or EPA funding to allow corporate destruction of the environment to continue with zero consequences to the bottom line of the producers of pollution.

“We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.  
— “We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.  These two fall under the R fight against what they call, erroneously, 'Socialism'..   Get Bootstrappy all you poors!  It's your fault!  Pay your own way!!
  
Just because these things have not been fully enacted yet doesn't mean they aren't the goals, wishes,  or dreams  of conservative politicians.   Some have been partially accomplished, some not so much but ALL of the above are being worked on in conservative policy backrooms and on the floors of state and federal governing houses in your country, in mine and around the world.

Dave

I'm not going to get into a great/terrible discussion about it.  

The inspiration for the statue is this photo of Martin and his wife embracing when he won the Nobel Peace Prize.  

The depiction of the hands, rings, arms, etc. is very accurate...

Dave