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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
While certainly true I don't think this discrimination is a ploy to earn the support of racists, given that the freedmen
were former slaves owned by the Cherokee I think it's much more likely that it's just sincere bigotry.
Not related to your overall point but should point out that Cherokee Nation is one of 5 tribes who owned slaves and currently the only one that gives their Freedmen full citizenship, after being ordered to by a federal court in 2017.
The current issue of vaccines concerns Seminole Nation, another one of the five tribes, and their Freedmen descendants.
The Seminole Nation voted in 2000 to strip their Freedmen of tribal citizenship, but the nation reversed itself after the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs withheld funding from the tribe in response. Now, Seminole Freedmen are classified as having no “Indian blood,” segregating them from blood citizens of the tribe who can be elected to senior leadership positions and are eligible for financial assistance.
Other tribes in Oklahoma — like the Choctaw and Muscogee (Creek) Nations — have expelled their Freedmen entirely by changes in their tribal constitutions that added “by blood” requirements for citizenship. The Chickasaw Nation jointly signed its Reconstruction treaty with the Choctaw Nation, but never enrolled its Freedmen as citizens.
Georgia election investigators were unable to find any counterfeit ballots among batches identified by Republican vote-counters, according to a court brief Tuesday, dealing a blow to a lawsuit seeking to inspect absentee ballots cast in last year’s presidential election.
The court document filed on behalf of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said investigators reviewed 1,000 absentee ballots from batches in Fulton County that allegedly contained “pristine” ballots with perfectly filled-in ovals and no fold lines. All ballots in those batches appeared to be legitimate.
“The secretary’s investigators have not uncovered any absentee ballots that match the descriptions given by affiants or otherwise appear to be fraudulent or counterfeit,” stated the 89-page response to the court by Georgia Assistant Attorney General Charlene Mc Gowan.
The secretary of state’s office provided information about its investigations in response to a request last month from Superior Court Judge Brian Amero, who is considering whether to dismiss the case.
The lawsuit is based on sworn statements by four Republican election auditors who alleged they saw suspicious ballots during a statewide audit that recounted every ballot by hand in November.
The lead plaintiff in the case, Garland Favorito of the group Voter GA, said a full inspection of Fulton County’s 147,000 absentee ballots is needed to find counterfeits.
“Sworn affidavits say there were counterfeit ballots, and we need to know where they are and how they got there so we can fix this for future elections,” Favorito said.
State election officials have said there’s no indication of fraud after three ballot counts and multiple investigations. Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican incumbent Donald Trump in Georgia’s presidential election by about 12,000 votes. But Trump and his supporters have continued to claim the election was rigged, despite providing no evidence that has stood up in court.
Investigators questioned the four Republicans who worked as auditors and said they saw problematic ballots, but they provided little information to back up their claims.
One of them, Suzi Voyles, said she saw ballots that were not creased and appeared to have been marked by computer rather than by hand. She identified Box 5 and Batches 28-36, but none of the ballots in those batches matched her description, investigators said.
Voyles said she reported suspicious-looking absentee ballots to Fulton election officials, but another auditor contradicted her in statements to investigators. Barbara Hartman said she and Voyles didn’t report their concerns to officials “out of fear that they would then fold creases in the ballots.”
Voyles also told investigators she could have been mistaken in her sworn statement and might have seen counterfeit ballots in Box 135, Batches 28-36. Investigators found that Box 135 with Batches 28-36 didn’t exist.
Two other vote-counters, Sonia-Francis Rolle and Gordon Rolle, told investigators they saw absentee ballots that looked like they hadn’t been folded, but they didn’t report their observations to election officials and didn’t take note of those ballot batch numbers.
The court filing also dispelled a conspiracy theory alleging that election workers counted “suitcases” of ballots at State Farm Arena after 10 p.m. the day of the election.
The alleged “suitcases” of ballots were normal ballot bins, which election workers had opened and sorted, but hadn’t yet scanned for tabulation. Election workers put the ballots in the bins and stored them beneath a table when they thought they were going to go home for the night, but they later counted them when an elections supervisor instructed them to keep working.
Investigations of multiple allegations involving last year’s election are ongoing and will eventually be considered by the State Election Board, which has the power to levy fines up to $5,000 per violation or refer cases to the attorney general’s office.
Amero had put the ballot inspection case on hold while he awaited the state’s response to the allegations of counterfeit ballots.
The judge will weigh whether to proceed with the ballot review or dismiss the case following a court hearing scheduled for next month.
Amero previously dismissed the case against Fulton’s elections board and the county itself, but he allowed it to continue against individual members of the elections board.
The plaintiffs recently asked Amero to dismiss the Democrats on the election board from the case and allow it to move forward against only the board’s Republican members, who don’t oppose the ballot review.
Preliminary information indicates that the employees checked out batches of applications for processing, and they are alleged to have shredded some of the forms, the Fulton County statement says. Fellow employees reported the alleged actions to their supervisor Friday morning, and the two employees were fired that day.
The county statement says the applications were received in the past two weeks. Fulton County includes most of the city of Atlanta, where voters are set to go to the polls Nov. 2 to elect a mayor, City Council members and other municipal officials. The deadline to register to vote in that election was October 4.
It's not immediately clear whether the 300 voter registration records in question were lost, county spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt said.
"Normally, processing a voter registration application involves entering them in the state system, updating them, verifying their information," she said. "That is the matter that's under investigation — was that process completed."
Voters don't register by party in Georgia, so the applications had no party affiliation.
Fulton County Registration and Elections Director Rick Barron reported the allegations to the secretary of state's office of investigations.
"Fulton County called the secretary of state's office. We told them about this and we asked them to investigate," Corbitt said.
Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts also reported the matter to county District Attorney Fani Willis for investigation.
"Elections are the most important function of our government," Pitts said in the statement. "We have committed to transparency and integrity."
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who has long criticized election operations in the heavily Democratic county, said in a news release that his office has launched an investigation and he called on the U.S. Department of Justice to look into the county's elections.
"After 20 years of documented failure in Fulton County elections, Georgians are tired of waiting to see what the next embarrassing revelation will be," Raffensperger said in the release. "The Department of Justice needs to take a long look at what Fulton County is doing and how their leadership disenfranchises Fulton voters through incompetence and malfeasance. The voters of Georgia are sick of Fulton County's failures."
Fulton County does have a history of election problems, including long lines, inefficiency in reporting election results and other issues. The June 2020 primary election was especially problematic, and the State Election Board entered into a consent order with the county that included appointing an independent monitor for the general election. The county also took numerous steps to ensure things would run more smoothly in November.
The monitor, Carter Jones, who had previous experience working on elections in other parts of the world, observed the county's election processes from October through January, and said he observed sloppy practices and poor management but saw no evidence of "any dishonesty, fraud or intentional malfeasance."
Georgia's State Election Board in August appointed a review panel to investigate Fulton County's handling of elections after receiving requests from Republican lawmakers who represent the county. The lawmakers used a controversial provision of the state's sweeping new election law to trigger a process that could ultimately lead to a takeover of elections in the county.
Any Fulton County resident who tries to vote in an upcoming election and is found not to be registered will be able to vote using a provisional ballot, and an investigation will follow, the county statement says.
Edited by tclittle on Oct 12th 2021 at 8:52:21 AM
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/12/politics/trump-hotel-washington/index.html
Any bets Trump's trying to offload that Hotel given it was basically a staging area for his coup attempt and thus his name being on it consistently reminds people of that fact?
Semper Fi. Semper Paratus. Vigilo Confido.So, what could happen in the Texas affair? Is there any legal precedent to a Governeur Executive Order directly trying to invalidate a federal mandate? Could there be a court battle?
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% ScandinavianNot related to your overall point but should point out that Cherokee Nation is one of 5 tribes who owned slaves and currently the only one that gives their Freedmen full citizenship, after being ordered to by a federal court in 2017.
The current issue of vaccines concerns Seminole Nation, another one of the five tribes, and their Freedmen descendants.
Fair point, it's certainly worth noting that the Cherokee aren't the only ones who've treated their former slaves poorly.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangAlso should be remembered Native Tribes took slaves before Europeans even showed up too. And were racist.
That's how Inuit got "Eskimo" coined at them by tribes they ran into, which was actually meant as a racial slur.
Semper Fi. Semper Paratus. Vigilo Confido.Yeah, while what they suffered through at the hands of the Settlers was unforgivable, the Natives were not exactly sunshine and roses when they were on their own.
Edited by Forenperser on Oct 13th 2021 at 3:35:38 PM
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% ScandinavianFederal overrules state, so if it goes up the chain Texas is told to knock it off.
If they continue any way the national gaurd gets deployed to MAKE them knock it off.
States have tried it before, and even got really stubborn about it when it was about the integration of schools, but they dont really get a choice once the feds bring out the men with guns... which they had too for the whole aforementioned school integration thing.
A state going agianst the federal goverment is a bit like any of us going agianst a cop. Even if it was over something we feel is justified (say the states that ingnore that federally marijuana is illegal) it only gets to go on as long as they choose to ignore it.
And since this is a current issue that the federal goverment actualy cares about Texas can grump and try this but as soon as it gets challenged the federal government wins.
Edited by Imca on Oct 13th 2021 at 5:05:06 AM
Odd are decent it get escalated, zero that they rule in Texas favor since this is a mater of the sovregnity of the federal goverment... something they have a vested intrest in maintaining.
Remember ruling in texas favor would also prevent them from ruling agianst states doing something they dont like, they have zero reason to forfeit the power of the federal goverment over something like this.
Edit: Also last time wasnt in texas favor.
Even if we hate the decision and I sure as hell do, the ruling was that they couldnt rule on a law that hadnt yet been used, essentially deferring a ruling until later... It is actualy back on it's way up now after people purposely got themselfs sued to nullify that.
It's also fairly normal legal protocol to not judge laws if there isnt an active case using them... which is a point to disagree with how the law works on but that is sadly how it works.
TL:DR; It wasnt "Texas was in the right and can keep the law forever" it was "We have no authority to rule on this, and will do so when we have to" the later defaults to the law remaining until challenged normaly.
Edited by Imca on Oct 13th 2021 at 5:13:43 AM
I... don't know why you'd think that. There are tens of thousands of real-world examples of people doing to others what was done to them.
The golden rule exists because it has to be said, it's in no way inherent to the human condition.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangIf it's within the federal government's area of authority, a question which can end up in court.
Also, Texas is a lot better positioned than Mississippi if they do pull that stunt that Miss. pulled under Obama by threatening to arrest federal agents. Or to continue your analogy, while cops don't much mind using excessive force against Black people, they tread lightly around armed masses of White sovereign citizens.
And don't forget the almighty dollar. Its that time of year when its time to enroll into medical insurance for 2022. Two things are well known, 1) Treatment for COVID is MEGA EXPENSIVE 2) Getting Vaxxed reduces these costs greatly. Ergo various insurance companies are going to issue higher costs/premiums to people who are NOT vaxxed.
Therefore employers are going to find ways to get rid of the unvaxxed, last check TX was an At will state they won't 'mandate' it per say but I'm willing to bet employers are already looking at the unvaxxed and finding ways to fire them before the enrollment period.
It seems that supporting OANN is having genuine consequences for AT&T as its stock has plummeted in recent days
. It's not clear how much of this is due to the social media boycott and how much due to other factors.
I'm glad that I use Verizon for my wireless service and am not faced with the annoyance of switching providers, but something like this might be enough to motivate me.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Trying to equate racism towards Native Americans with racism among Native Americans in a Both Sides Have a Point sort of way is simply not possible. What the Native Americans suffered at the hands of their European conquerors was far worse than anything they did to themselves.
Let me elaborate. And I am in no way defending the instances of racism among Native Americans when I say this. All I am saying is that people who try to "both-sides" the relationship between Native Americans and whites— especially the colonization of America— by essentially saying "yes, the colonists were kind of mean, but the Native Americans were jerks too," are incorrect.
So much of our foundational stories (Pocahontas, the first Thanksgiving, Squanto...) are built on the notion that if everyone had simply talked it out and decided to share we would all get along. It ignores the basic fact that European settlers were, well, invading and encroaching on societies in the midst of an apocalyptic collapse. There's no "maybe we're really not so different" in that scenario.
The white Europeans were the bad guys. Enough said.
Edited by ElSquibbonator on Oct 13th 2021 at 12:39:29 PM

NY Times: After Denying Care to Black Natives, Indian Health Service Reverses Policy
The same blood requirement was also used to deny Freedmen access to last year’s federal Covid-19 Emergency Assistance Program because they didn’t hold “valid” tribal cards, according to the documents. Seminole Freedmen are given tribal membership cards stating they have “voting benefits only.”
A bill introduced in the Seminole Nation legislature that would make the tribe’s Freedmen eligible for the American Rescue Plan funds was voted down, 12 to 15, last month.
Edited by nova92 on Oct 13th 2021 at 8:04:32 PM