American Politics IV: 1400 Reasons Why(A Stimulus Serial)

[Kowani]

Meanwhile in Tennessee, a bill banning textbooks with LGBT+ content

A bill proposed by Republican Tennessee state lawmakers would ban textbooks and teaching materials that contain LGBT content.

The bill, H.B. 800, was introduced by state Rep. Bruce Griffey (R) in February and is slated to be considered by the state's Education Instruction Subcommittee on March 30, according to KENS5.

According to the legislation's summary of the bill, "LEAs (local education agencies) and public charter schools are prohibited from locally adopting or using in the public schools of this state, textbooks and instructional materials or supplemental instructional materials that promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender (LGBT) issues or lifestyles." The bill's text also states that it is currently unknown if some textbook material currently in use is in violation of the proposed legislation.

If the bill is passed, it would go into effect in July of this year and would be implemented in school districts state wide for the 2021-2022 school year, according to the local news station.

Billtext here

[Galloism]

Chicago actually had some of the strictest gun laws in the nation prior McDonald v. Chicago.

In point of fact, handguns were completely banned. Hence the case.

But it also had one of the highest murder rates in the nation - even in comparison to other US cities with less regulation (which was almost all of them - except DC). It would be fun to say it’s the other way, but we can’t say that.

In point of fact, gun ownership (which is what a ban is targeted at) and murder rate has nothing to do with each other.

The fuck is wrong with Louisiana?

I’d say lots of things, but that’s a bit of another thread.

[Senkaku]

The fuck is wrong with Louisiana?

I’d say lots of things, but that’s a bit of another thread.

better make it fast, the gulf is rising all the time

[The Black Forrest]

As opposed to Trump bending over and spreading for him.

oh no they tested a missile we need to start another war!!!

So making better missiles and threatening a friend is a good thing?

[The Black Forrest]

You framed it in a way that has its origins in homophobic imagery to attack one's opponents.

homophobia should only be used against policies that are bad

Such as?

[Odreria]

oh no they tested a missile we need to start another war!!!

So making better missiles and threatening a friend is a good thing?

it seems to work for the united states.

[The Black Forrest]

So making better missiles and threatening a friend is a good thing?

it seems to work for the united states.

And how is China building up is missiles a good thing?

[Odreria]

it seems to work for the united states.

And how is China building up is missiles a good thing?

well, my guess is if China is building up their missiles it's because they want to increase their missile capabilities.

[The Black Forrest]

And how is China building up is missiles a good thing?

well, my guess is if China is building up their missiles it's because they want to increase their missile capabilities.

You really can answer a question.

[Senkaku]

it seems to work for the united states.

And how is China building up is missiles a good thing?

...now you want us to go to war with the Chinese as well as the Norks? One nuclear land war in Asia isn't enough to whet your appetite?

[North Washington Republic]

Impeachment probe to examine COVID tests for Cuomo

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The impeachment investigation into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expanding to examine whether the governor unlawfully used his office to provide his family members with special access to scarce coronavirus tests a year ago, a state lawmaker said Thursday.

The office of Attorney General Letitia James, Cuomo's fellow Democrat, issued a statement earlier Thursday urging New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate the alleged preferential testing after reports were published in the Times Union of Albany, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

“The recent reports alleging there was preferential treatment given for COVID-19 testing are troubling,” the statement read. “While we do not have jurisdiction to investigate this matter, it’s imperative that JCOPE look into it immediately.”

A spokesperson for the ethics commission, Walt McClure, said the commission could not comment "on anything that is or might be an investigative matter.”

The impeachment investigation's primary focus remains on allegations of sexual harassment against Cuomo, as well as reports that his administration intentionally underreported virus deaths at nursing homes and glazed over bridge safety concerns, but the alleged preferential testing will be explored, Assembly Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Lavine told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Members of Cuomo’s family including his brother, CNN journalist Chris Cuomo; his mother; and at least one of his three sisters were tested by top health department officials, some of them several times, according to the Times Union of Albany.

The testing of people closely tied to the governor was carried out by high-ranking state health officials, The New York Times reported. It mostly happened in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.

The newspapers cited multiple people with direct knowledge of the testing but did not identify them.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, did not explicitly deny that the administration had extended special treatment to people close to the governor but sought to dispute the notion. The governor's office didn't provide responses to a list of questions from The Associated Press, including whether the governor disputes the reports.

“In the early days of this pandemic, when there was a heavy emphasis on contact tracing, we were absolutely going above and beyond to get people tested,” Azzopardi said in a statement, adding that the effort included “in some instances going to people’s homes — and door-to door-in places like New Rochelle — to take samples from those believed to have been exposed to COVID in order to identify cases” and to prevent others from developing the disease.

The state Assembly is conducting the investigation into whether there are grounds to impeach the governor. It has hired a Manhattan law firm to lead the probe looking into whether Cuomo used his office to sexually harass or assault female employees, unlawfully withheld the real nursing home death count, covered up structural bolt issues on a state bridge that opened in 2017 to replace the former Tappan Zee bridge or provided preferential testing.

The state attorney general is also investigating the allegations of sexual harassment, which Cuomo has denied, and a federal inquiry into the state’s reporting of nursing home resident deaths is underway.

Chris Cuomo was diagnosed with COVID-19 in late March of 2020. The CNN anchor was swabbed by a top state health department doctor who visited his Hamptons home to collect samples from him and his family, people with knowledge of the matter told The Washington Post, which did not identify them.

In a statement late Wednesday, CNN spokesperson Matt Dornic said: “We generally do not get involved in the medical decisions of our employees. However, it is not surprising that in the earliest days of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, when Chris was showing symptoms and was concerned about possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for advice and assistance, as any human being would.”

The same doctor who tested Chris Cuomo, Eleanor Adams, now a top adviser to the state health commissioner, also was enlisted to test other Cuomo family members, two people familiar with the program told The Washington Post.

The Washington Post reported that “dozens of VIPs, some living in penthouses in Manhattan,” got access to rushed tests. Cuomo’s office didn’t directly respond to that report.

The coronavirus test specimens were then rushed by state police escorts to the Wadsworth Center, a state public health lab in Albany, where they were processed immediately, the people said.

State police spokesperson Beau Duffy said that there was “nothing extraordinary” about the agency’s involvement and said it helped transfer all samples to state labs early on in the pandemic last year. Troopers picked up samples from doctor’s offices, state testing sites, nursing homes and other locations at the state health agency’s direction.

“During the first weeks of the pandemic, troopers transported thousands of samples from around the state to Wadsworth for testing,” Duffy said.

In March 2020, Cuomo cited his own experience with his family in daily news conferences in which he at times discouraged the public from getting tested for COVID-19 unless they had traveled to a hot spot. In one briefing from March 18 that year, he described discouraging his sister from getting a test for her daughter because it didn’t seem necessary.

Cuomo often suggested the primary purpose of limited COVID-19 tests was to isolate people who are likely exposed and sick.

“The truth is we don’t have the testing capacity,” Cuomo told reporters March 9, 2020. "We have the protocol on the testing because we can’t test people on that kind of whim.”

I’m posting this in the America politics thread because this has to do more with Gov. Cuomo’s impeachment probe rather than COVID policy. With all the allegations against him regarding sexual harassment/assault and with his covering up of COVID nursing home deaths, I think that him giving special treatment to his family regarding Covid tests during the very early days of the pandemic is just another reason why he should resign, and if he refuses, he should be impeached.

But he is not my Governor, so it isn’t really up to me.

[The Black Forrest]

And how is China building up is missiles a good thing?

...now you want us to go to war with the Chinese as well as the Norks? One nuclear land war in Asia isn't enough to whet your appetite?

Now you are on to something. I think China would really like to be rid of the Norks. Wonder how much they would pay?

[Odreria]

...now you want us to go to war with the Chinese as well as the Norks? One nuclear land war in Asia isn't enough to whet your appetite?

Now you are on to something. I think China would really like to be rid of the Norks. Wonder how much they would pay?

can you just list in one place all the genocides you want so we can keep track of them

[The Black Forrest]

Now you are on to something. I think China would really like to be rid of the Norks. Wonder how much they would pay?

can you just list in one place all the genocides you want so we can keep track of them

Genocide? Nah I am a business man. Just think of the bitching tans you can get! There is money to be made!

[San Lumen]

Impeachment probe to examine COVID tests for Cuomo

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The impeachment investigation into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expanding to examine whether the governor unlawfully used his office to provide his family members with special access to scarce coronavirus tests a year ago, a state lawmaker said Thursday.

The office of Attorney General Letitia James, Cuomo's fellow Democrat, issued a statement earlier Thursday urging New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate the alleged preferential testing after reports were published in the Times Union of Albany, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

“The recent reports alleging there was preferential treatment given for COVID-19 testing are troubling,” the statement read. “While we do not have jurisdiction to investigate this matter, it’s imperative that JCOPE look into it immediately.”

A spokesperson for the ethics commission, Walt McClure, said the commission could not comment "on anything that is or might be an investigative matter.”

The impeachment investigation's primary focus remains on allegations of sexual harassment against Cuomo, as well as reports that his administration intentionally underreported virus deaths at nursing homes and glazed over bridge safety concerns, but the alleged preferential testing will be explored, Assembly Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Lavine told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Members of Cuomo’s family including his brother, CNN journalist Chris Cuomo; his mother; and at least one of his three sisters were tested by top health department officials, some of them several times, according to the Times Union of Albany.

The testing of people closely tied to the governor was carried out by high-ranking state health officials, The New York Times reported. It mostly happened in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.

The newspapers cited multiple people with direct knowledge of the testing but did not identify them.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, did not explicitly deny that the administration had extended special treatment to people close to the governor but sought to dispute the notion. The governor's office didn't provide responses to a list of questions from The Associated Press, including whether the governor disputes the reports.

“In the early days of this pandemic, when there was a heavy emphasis on contact tracing, we were absolutely going above and beyond to get people tested,” Azzopardi said in a statement, adding that the effort included “in some instances going to people’s homes — and door-to door-in places like New Rochelle — to take samples from those believed to have been exposed to COVID in order to identify cases” and to prevent others from developing the disease.

The state Assembly is conducting the investigation into whether there are grounds to impeach the governor. It has hired a Manhattan law firm to lead the probe looking into whether Cuomo used his office to sexually harass or assault female employees, unlawfully withheld the real nursing home death count, covered up structural bolt issues on a state bridge that opened in 2017 to replace the former Tappan Zee bridge or provided preferential testing.

The state attorney general is also investigating the allegations of sexual harassment, which Cuomo has denied, and a federal inquiry into the state’s reporting of nursing home resident deaths is underway.

Chris Cuomo was diagnosed with COVID-19 in late March of 2020. The CNN anchor was swabbed by a top state health department doctor who visited his Hamptons home to collect samples from him and his family, people with knowledge of the matter told The Washington Post, which did not identify them.

In a statement late Wednesday, CNN spokesperson Matt Dornic said: “We generally do not get involved in the medical decisions of our employees. However, it is not surprising that in the earliest days of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, when Chris was showing symptoms and was concerned about possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for advice and assistance, as any human being would.”

The same doctor who tested Chris Cuomo, Eleanor Adams, now a top adviser to the state health commissioner, also was enlisted to test other Cuomo family members, two people familiar with the program told The Washington Post.

The Washington Post reported that “dozens of VIPs, some living in penthouses in Manhattan,” got access to rushed tests. Cuomo’s office didn’t directly respond to that report.

The coronavirus test specimens were then rushed by state police escorts to the Wadsworth Center, a state public health lab in Albany, where they were processed immediately, the people said.

State police spokesperson Beau Duffy said that there was “nothing extraordinary” about the agency’s involvement and said it helped transfer all samples to state labs early on in the pandemic last year. Troopers picked up samples from doctor’s offices, state testing sites, nursing homes and other locations at the state health agency’s direction.

“During the first weeks of the pandemic, troopers transported thousands of samples from around the state to Wadsworth for testing,” Duffy said.

In March 2020, Cuomo cited his own experience with his family in daily news conferences in which he at times discouraged the public from getting tested for COVID-19 unless they had traveled to a hot spot. In one briefing from March 18 that year, he described discouraging his sister from getting a test for her daughter because it didn’t seem necessary.

Cuomo often suggested the primary purpose of limited COVID-19 tests was to isolate people who are likely exposed and sick.

“The truth is we don’t have the testing capacity,” Cuomo told reporters March 9, 2020. "We have the protocol on the testing because we can’t test people on that kind of whim.”

I’m posting this in the America politics thread because this has to do more with Gov. Cuomo’s impeachment probe rather than COVID policy. With all the allegations against him regarding sexual harassment/assault and with his covering up of COVID nursing home deaths, I think that him giving special treatment to his family regarding Covid tests during the very early days of the pandemic is just another reason why he should resign, and if he refuses, he should be impeached.

But he is not my Governor, so it isn’t really up to me.

He is my governor and he absolutely should resign immediately.

[Kowani]

And Seorgia has already been sued

The case claims that the bill’s voting restrictions—including new identification requirements for absentee voting, limits on the use of absentee drop boxes, banning mobile polling places, invalidating ballots cast before 5:00 PM in the wrong precinct, banning any non-poll worker from giving food or drink, including water, to voters waiting in line, and more—violate the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

complaint here

[San Lumen]

And Seorgia has already been sued

The case claims that the bill’s voting restrictions—including new identification requirements for absentee voting, limits on the use of absentee drop boxes, banning mobile polling places, invalidating ballots cast before 5:00 PM in the wrong precinct, banning any non-poll worker from giving food or drink, including water, to voters waiting in line, and more—violate the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

complaint here

Hopefully its overturned in court.

[North Washington Republic]

And Seorgia has already been sued

The case claims that the bill’s voting restrictions—including new identification requirements for absentee voting, limits on the use of absentee drop boxes, banning mobile polling places, invalidating ballots cast before 5:00 PM in the wrong precinct, banning any non-poll worker from giving food or drink, including water, to voters waiting in line, and more—violate the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

complaint here

Hopefully its overturned in court.

Without a strong federal voting rights bill, I’m afraid to say that the Georgia voter suppression law and similar laws in other states are going to upheld by SCOUTS.

[San Lumen]

Hopefully its overturned in court.

Without a strong federal voting rights bill, I’m afraid to say that the Georgia voter suppression law and similar laws in other states are going to upheld by SCOUTS.

'
Hence why its imperative that HR1 gets passed by any means necessary. Plus the court could still uphold section 2. Roberts has been full of surprises as of late. He refused to strike down independent redistricting commissions for example.

[Neutraligon]

Georgia republicans eliminate no-excuse absentee voting, set to eliminate automatic voter registration, cut weekend voting days—including on Sundays, when Black churches hold “Souls to the Polls” get-out-the-vote drives—restrict the use of mail ballot drop boxes, prevent counties from accepting grants from nonprofits to improve their elections, add new voter ID requirements for mail ballots, give election officials less time to send out mail ballots and voters less time to return them, and even makes it a crime to distribute food and water to voters waiting in line

minor edit: the elimination of Sundays for early voting did not make it through, nor did the elimination of no-excuse absentee voting, but other things were added

One of the biggest changes in the bill would give the GOP-controlled legislature more control over election administration, a change that has raised concerns among voting rights groups that it could lead to greater partisan influence.The bill would replace the elected secretary of state as the chair of the state election board with a new appointee of the legislature after Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger rebuffed Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results. It would also allow the board to remove and replace county election officials deemed to be underperforming. The bill also reduces the timeframe in which runoff elections are held, including the amount of early voting for runoffs. And it would bar outside groups from handing out food or water to people standing in line to vote.

The bill does not contain some of the more contentious proposals that were floated by Republicans earlier in the session, including limits on early voting on Sundays, a popular day for Black churchgoers to vote in “souls to the polls” events. It would instead mandate two Saturdays of early voting ahead of general elections, when only one is currently mandatory, and leave two Sundays as optional.

in

Kemp has now signed the bill

Wonder if the food and water thing is against the right to assemble.

[Kowani]

New York on the verge of legalizing marijuana

Democrats, who control the New York legislature, have come to terms on a measure to legalize marijuana, which would make the state the 15th in the country to allow recreational use of the drug, according to two reports on Thursday. The proposed bill, which had eluded lawmakers’ attempted agreements for years, would establish a regulatory structure for controlling marijuana sales, according to CNN, which cited a legislative source familiar with negotiations and an internal legislative memo that it obtained.

The proposed bill, would apply a 13% excise tax to retail marijuana sales and would eventually allow New Yorkers who are at least 21 years old to grow plants at home, CNN said.

The bill, the terms of which were still being reviewed, could go to a vote in the Assembly and Senate as early as next week, The New York Times said, citing three people familiar with the negotiations.

Governor Andrew Cuomo is on board with the agreement, which was negotiated by Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Senate Finance Committee Chair Liz Krueger, the Times reported.

[Kowani]

Georgia State Rep. Park Cannon (D) arrested for...knocking on the Governor's door after he signed a voter suppression bill???

and we now have video of the arrest

She's now being charges with two felonies...for knocking on a door

[The Alma Mater]

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The impeachment investigation into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expanding to examine whether the governor unlawfully used his office to provide his family members with special access to scarce coronavirus tests a year ago, a state lawmaker said Thursday.

Why was that not a problem when Trump did it ?

[North Washington Republic]

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The impeachment investigation into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expanding to examine whether the governor unlawfully used his office to provide his family members with special access to scarce coronavirus tests a year ago, a state lawmaker said Thursday.

Why was that not a problem when Trump did it ?

Why do people believe that a person cannot condemn both Trump and Cuomo. Are we that damn partisan?

[Vassenor]

Why was that not a problem when Trump did it ?

Why do people believe that a person cannot condemn both Trump and Cuomo. Are we that damn partisan?

Because we didnt see any real condemnation for Trump's nepotism, let alone criminal proceedings for it.

Meanwhile a sitting Senator decided that threatening the President was a good idea.