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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I support McGrath, as it happens (chiefly for her support for an ACA public option), so I'll be happy if she wins.
Whether it's her or Booker against Murder Mitch, though, either of them will be getting a check from me after the primary's over.
Republicans have been skipping House Intelligence meetings for months – GOP members say the panel's virtual sessions are insecure. Democrats accuse Republicans of a partisan snit.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/29/republicans-house-intelligence-345212
Mom of Marine killed in Afghanistan wants investigation of claim Russians paid Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers – President Donald Trump has denied a report he was briefed on intelligence that a Russian military intelligence unit paid bounties for the killings of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
There were places Booker had huge leads in.
So its possible.
We'll see.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
To go back to the Trump show for a moment, have an image meme I just found.
David Wasserman, to my knowledge, has never been wrong when he declares "I've seen enough."
Biden tells his donors that 'may not like' when he gets rid of Trump's tax cuts.
Professional Forum Ninja
Can't win em all I suppose, though that ruling shouldn't be too awful I guess.
As for Kentucky, outright defeating Mitch is unlikely. Its about putting up enough of a threat to divert RNC resources from more winnable states.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
I think defeating Mitch is easy actually. Anyone could beat Mitch if they could actually get the votes to the public.
It kind of infuriates me that people write off our state.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jun 30th 2020 at 9:48:03 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Assuming how Mitch has acted the last 4 years hasn't turned enough people to get him out of office.
People also underestimate just how hated Mitch is within his own party.
Edited by ScubaWolf on Jun 30th 2020 at 12:49:16 PM
"In a move surprising absolutely no one"
Jupiterian Local
The tldr of the ruling seems to be that withholding funding from religious schools just because they're religious is unconstitutional because it violates the free exercise clause, but it doesn't violate the establishment clause because that only applies to the federal government.
As a reminder, the free exercise and establishment clauses are part of the same sentence in the first amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof".
But apparently the phrase "establishment of religion" only applies to the feds, but "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" applies to the states too. And funding secular but not religious schools is prohibiting the free exercise of that religion.
Seems like pretty blatant bullshit cherry picking to me.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
I’m looking at the most recent Kentucky senate polls, and Mitch has a double-digit leads, though earlier polls (from a month or more ago) show his lead being within the margin or error.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/senate/kentucky/
Edited by Galadriel on Jun 30th 2020 at 12:51:59 PM
I dunno, I think if a Muslim based private school gave good teaching then it should be allowed to have Federal funding. Mind you, I have a bigger objection to the fact that a lot of these schools are dangerously underfunded for-profit institutions that use religion to avoid paying taxes and serves as shelters for donors.
Because fuck the Devos family.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Most of the positive polls were by the McGrath campaign or by organizations that supported her.
Andy Beshear did win in 2019 against a similarly unpopular incumbent, but that was in an election where 1) Donald Trump was not at the top of the ticket, 2) for Governor, a position that is much less nationalized than Senator, 3) as the son of a fairly popular former governor. And he still won by less than .5%. Amy McGrath has raised gobs of money, and McConnell has definitely gotten a lot of negative attention since his last election, so there is a sliver of hope, but it's still an enormous uphill battle.
I'm not writing off Kentucky, I just look at the data and the polls and the most credible ones still look decent (though worse than they should be, historically) for Mitch's chances.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Jupiterian Local
There's a reasonable argument to be made that funding a school that happens to be associated with a church isn't a violation of the establishment clause, or that you can fund the school part of it without funding the church part of it by keeping careful track of where the money goes (the same way that the government can fund Planned Parenthood without funding abortions even if Planned Parenthood is an abortion provider).
But that's not the SCOTUS ruling. The SCOTUS ruling in this case is that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" means that the federal government can't establish a religion (but states can) while no one (neither federal nor state government) can prohibit the free exercise of religion.
There's no additional context to the line. It's the very beginning of the first amendment. There's no clear reasoning why the establishment clause and the free exercise clause would apply differently to different parts of government, except that declaring it so allows the SCOTUS to force states to fund religious schools.
Edited by NativeJovian on Jun 30th 2020 at 1:17:59 PM
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Looks like Tom Steyer is another longshot primary candidate that will be sticking around. From Politico: Tom Steyer returns to the fundraising circuit
Besides continuing to fund NextGen America - a group he founded in 2013 that focuses primarily on engaging and turning out young voters - Steyer will deploy his extensive email list to raise money directly for candidates and engage volunteers, as well as personally host fundraisers and events that aides expect will consistently bring in six-figure hauls for congressional candidates.
...
He'll also soon launch an interview series with down-ballot candidates to draw more eyes to their campaign, along with a digital operation to promote them.
Ball is in your court, Bloomberg.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
We've been having protests for weeks, and I've seen people say that we're not really getting meaningful police reform, but a few minor concessions designed to pretend something is being done about the problem.
It does seem to be the case that when a movement threatens the status quo, there's an attempt to try to divert the movement away by being all "I hear your complaints" while doing nothing about the fundamental problem. I wonder how many times it'll work before people say, "Screw you, you're not pulling that one again," and continuing to... protest? What happens next?
Well, the Michigan police department was removed.
The thing about this is people keep thinking this is a local issue and it's not, it's a Federal one. Obama made reform of the police and issue. Democrats if put in charge of the Senate have a police reform bill. However, that will only happen if they're put in charge of it.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
You aren't going to see any decent reform at the federal level until January, if the election goes well.
Local improvement and reform takes time and sustained effort on all sides. There is no quick policy solution here, at least not one that's effective.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
That it can. Colorado's Police Reform Bill seems to be a start most places can look at.
Use of force: Chokeholds and carotid control holds will be banned. Carotid control holds are maneuvers in which officers bend their arms around a person’s neck and apply pressure on either side of the windpipe, which can lead to unconsciousness. The policy would require officers to only use force if absolutely necessary and deadly force can’t be used against someone for a minor or nonviolent offense. Officers can only use deadly force against someone fleeing from police if they pose an immediate risk to the officer or others, which advocates say is already case law.
Failure to intervene: An officer who fails to try to stop another from using excessive force could face a class 1 misdemeanor or greater charge. Officers will be protected from retaliation if they intervene.
Fired cops: Officers who plead guilty to or are convicted of an inappropriate use of force, failure to intervene to stop excessive force or found civilly liable for excessive force or failure to intervene will lose their Peace Officer Standards and Training board certification permanently. Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, the POST board will create and maintain a public database of officers who have been decertified, fired, found to be untruthful or repeatedly failed to follow training requirements.
Qualified immunity: The bill removes the qualified immunity defense, allowing people to bring civil rights claims in Colorado court. People who allege civil rights violations will be able to sue officers in their individual capacities. Officers determined not to have acted in good faith or with a reasonable belief that what they did was legal can be held personally liable for 5% of a judgment or settlement or $25,000, whichever is less.
Police prosecutions: The state attorney general has the authority to prosecute persistently bad departments and officers.
Protester protections: Officers will be prohibited from shooting rubber bullets indiscriminately into a crowd as well as targeting rubber bullet shots at someone’s head, torso or back. It also prevents officers from using tear gas before announcing it and giving time to for people to disperse.
Data tracking: Law enforcement agencies will have to send the state data on their use of force resulting in serious injury or death as well as stops, unannounced entries and use of firearms. Some demographic information will also be required. Agencies who don’t provide the information could put their funding in jeopardy.
NPR and the Hill are both saying Mc Grath won as well. It was close, but she eeked out about 3% points ahead.
It looks like the primary in Kentucky's 6th district has been also been called, for Josh Hicks, who will be facing incumbent Andy Barr (R). (Amy McGrath narrowly lost this race in 2018.)
It looks like there are only a few counties left to report results, with Mc Grath about 7,000 votes ahead, Charles it’s your area, are the counties left to report big enough that they could realistically make a difference?
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran